'I would be probably just cracking a top 20' – Chris Froome talks Tadej Pogačar, the state of modern cycling, and his years in the wilderness post-injury - Canada News Beep

It might be only a year since Chris Froome retired, but it’s more than eight years since his most recent win, so it’s easy to forget how he once dominated the Grand Tours. He won seven three-week races in the eight seasons between 2011 and 2018, as well as the Critérium du Dauphiné three times and the Tour de Romandie twice. For a long stretch of the 2010s he was the sport’s best stage racer, bar none.

Despite that success and status, it’s surprising how little we’ve heard from the now-41-year-old in recent years. Yes, his career tailed off without a single victory after he joined Israel-Premier Tech in 2021, and the 2025 crash which ended his career a few months prematurely drew attention, but he was too busy recovering from life-threatening injuries to be speaking to the press. But other than a couple of interviews at the Tour de France last year, where he was working as an ambassador for Škoda, there’s been little else until the last couple of weeks.

Doing brand ambassador work, as well as investing in a few cycling companies, is how Froome spends a lot of his time now. It’s at an event for two of these brands – a joint Ekoï and Factor ride-out in south-west London – that Cyclingnews is reunited with the four-time Tour de France winner, the leafy Surrey Hills a far-cry away from the mountains of France and the intensity of his racing career.

“Your absolute goal is to get to that point where you can drive your opponents to think that they’re only racing for second place.”

Chris Froome

Socalising before the ride, there’s a hint he likes life away from the spotlight. He’s relaxed, smiling and chatting with the other guests as if he was just any other cyclist. Other than his colourful and flashy Factor One bike – a brand he’s a shareholder in – he’s no different on the road:the smiles, photos and chattiness continue, and he even pushes one of the slower punters up some of the climbs. He might be the star of the show, but for all intents and purposes, he’s just one of the group today.

(Image credit: Dave Dodge Photography/Ekoï)

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Chris Froome and Tadej Pogačar both dominated the Tour de France (Image credit: Getty Images)

While Froome experienced plenty of success through his career, it was punctuated by two very serious crashes. Just last year, weeks before what should have been his final race, he crashed while on a training ride, suffering multiple internal injuries, ending his career, and in 2019 he lost control of his bike while sighting the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial. As a result he knows something of how Pogačar might feel after his crash on stage 8 of the recent Vuelta a España, which ended the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider’s race and season.

Christopher Froome (Israel - Premier Tech) rides through the crowds on l'Alpe d'Huez during stage 12 of the 2022 Tour de France. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

“I was incredibly fortunate that after my 2019 crash, when I broke my leg in two places, that I didn’t have that fear. But I also don’t remember my crash, it was just erased from my memory, I must have hit my head hard enough, or it was enough of a shock that I don’t remember the crash at all. [Otherwise] I’d be always second guessing myself, going into corners at high speed, thinking, ‘What if I mess this one up like I did before?’”

A move to Israel-Premier Tech proved no more successful, though he came oh so close to winning on Alpe d’Huez during the 2022 Tour de France, eventually finishing third behind a rampant Tom Pidcock, a result he describes as good as a win. While he managed second place in the team time trial at the 2024 Tour du Rwanda, that day on the Alpe was the last individual top 10 placing of his career, and the man who had once been the greatest Grand Tour rider of his generation faded away, his team boss Sylvan Adams branding him as ‘not value for money’. But Froome sees it from his own perspective.

Back in the Surrey Hills, there might be some steep gradients and even some gravel on the lanes, but it’s a far cry from the Colle delle Finestre where Froome took the final win of his career, more than seven years before he finally retired. There, during the 2018 Giro d’Italia, he memorably obliterated the competition, in the pre-Pogačar era, his attack was barely conceivable, planting confusion among his rivals and completing the then Team Sky rider’s Grand Tour clean sweep.

The best day on the bike for Froome (Image credit: Getty Images)

“I knew that my team had set a hard enough tempo on the Colle delle Finestre that people wouldn’t have domestiques left. So it would be between the rest of the guys who were up there on GC, who was going to pull, who was going to take responsibility, and it just so happened to work in my favour that they were kind of bickering amongst themselves. They had Carapaz and Amador sitting on, not pulling through. It was basically Pinot and Dumoulin doing all the work, and they probably were in a very negative mindset chasing me, whereas I was out front and I was just having the day of my life.”

‘I would be probably just cracking a top 20’ – Chris Froome talks Tadej Pogačar, the state of modern cycling, and his years in the wilderness post-injury

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