La Vuelta 2020: No sympathy, no sentiment, no support – Chris Froome left for dead at the Vuelta
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ByTom Owen
Updated 20/10/2020 at 18:20 GMT
Chris Froome looked miserable by the time he reached the foot of the final climb on stage one of La Vuelta today. He had already been dropped at the beginning of the penultimate ascent, the category three Alto de Elgata – and as he always does, he battled hard to get back in touch by riding at his own steady pace. He yo-yoed off the back a bit then properly tailed off.
Christopher Froome of The United Kingdom and Team INEOS - Grenadiers at La Vuelta
Image credit: Getty Images
In the past, we’ve seen Chris Froome claw back gaps that seemed insurmountable in that steady, measured fashion, only to ride on past his quarry and leave them gasping in his slipstream.
Not today though.
On the descent from the Elgata he made back some time in that improbable, inelegant yet fast way he has of going downhill, but by the beginning of the Alto de Arrate, a fierce category one ascent, the last nail had been irreversibly thumped into his coffin – and by his own team no-less.
We’ve seen Froome out of shape or undercooked before, of course. In 2018 he won the Giro after looking decidedly second hand in the earlier parts of that race – only to peak spectacularly at just the right time and lay waste to the hopes of fellow Briton, Simon Yates. This doesn’t seem like it’s going to be one of those times.
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'Ineos aren't even waiting for Froome': Watch the moment Chris Froome was dropped on Stage One
The injury that ended Froome’s 2019 season is still affecting Britain’s greatest ever stage racer – and that’s to be expected given the severity and nature of the crash that caused it. Indeed, as Philippe Gilbert told Eurosport earlier this week, “I still believe it’s a miracle he’s already racing.”
It was also one of the most brutal opening days of a Grand Tour we’ve ever seen – with no opportunity for a recovering athlete to ‘ride themselves into it’. That is not the La Vuelta way; full gas, á bloc, from the gun.
Past his best, or still recovering, one thing is sure; the four-time Tour winner was left for dead by his team today when it became clear he would be playing no part in the stage finale.
There was no sentimentality present in Ineos’ strategy, and nor should we really expect there to be. Feelings are not something that play much of a role in Grand Tour-winning strategy after all. A less myopic team might’ve sacrificed a domestique to shepherd Froome to the summit, reasoning that two former Grand Tour winners in the top ten is better than one. But that is not the Ineos way.
The team didn’t just leave Froome behind on the first of the day’s one-two combo of finishing climbs, they were the ones setting the brutal pace on the second that made it impossible for Froome to regain contact. As the official La Vuelta race centre put it, “Froome struggles with the acceleration from Ineos.”
Of course, there are no gifts in cycling, and the races you’ve won before will only carry you so far if you don’t also have some legs to carry yourself. But the final, not-insignificant factor in Ineos’ decision to drop Froome and not look back must surely be his move to Israel StartUp Nation.
Next season he is expected to join the Middle Eastern team on a fantastical salary that far outstrips any sort of evidence of his ability to perform at the level that once made him so dominant. Could it be that Ineos are irked by the move and done with their franchise-defining athlete? Have they thrown the one name that will forever be inextricably associated with theirs under the bus before he’s even finished his last race in their jersey?
Maybe he’s just going for stage wins.
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