'Covid is no joke' – Chris Froome opens up on 'rough' first week at La Vuelta

ByBen Snowball

Published 27/08/2022 at 11:49 GMT

Chris Froome appeared to have turned a corner after taking a brilliant third place on Alpe d’Huez on Stage 12 at the Tour de France – his first top 10 finish since his career-threatening crash in 2019 – but he is back struggling again at La Vuelta as he racks up more triple-figure results. The Brit blames a Covid infection, which forced him out of the Tour, for his struggles in Spain.

Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) admits his preparations for La Vuelta were derailed by "quite bad" Covid symptoms.

After his third place on Alpe d’Huez at the Tour de France in July, optimism had soared for Froome after his long road back from a horror and career-threatening crash at the 2019 Dauphine.

But one week after his starring role on the iconic climb, Froome was forced out of the Tour with Covid.

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Although he returned for the final Grand Tour of the season, he has had a start to forget and failed to crack the top 100 in any individual stage. By comparison, Froome had eight top 50 finishes at the Tour – including his brilliant podium – before his withdrawal ahead of Stage 18.

“It’s been tough,” Froome told Eurosport ahead of Stage 8 at La Vuelta.

“I think everything was on track towards the end of the Tour de France. I was hoping to build through the Tour, take a small recovery and then really come to the Vuelta in good shape.

“But unfortunately having to leave the Tour de France with Covid really disrupted my preparations for the Vuelta.

“I was dealing with quite bad symptoms and it definitely affected my preparation coming into the Vuelta.”

Earlier on Saturday, the four-time Tour champion had vented his Covid frustration on social media.

"Rough first week. Covid is no joke," he wrote.

'Evenepoel certainly looks to be the strongest'

Froome still hopes to return to the front of the peloton but has seen a host of young hotshots emerge since his time in the limelight.

The latest of those is Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), who leads the Vuelta after he cracked three-time defending champion Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and the other fancied names on the first summit finish to Pico Jano on Stage 6.

“It’s a big weekend for everyone. I think we’re going to see a really big battle for the GC guys,” said Froome.

“I think Remco Evenepoel has a lot of work on his plate today to control the other GC riders – especially with such a hard start to today’s stage. So let’s see.

“He certainly looks to be the strongest in this first part of the race but there’s still a lot of racing to come.”

The greatest cycling talent in decades? The Breakaway debate how good Remco Evenepoel is

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Stream La Vuelta live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk.

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