Eight months after a very serious each while recognizing the prologue of Dauphinthe british Chris Froome (Nairobi, 34 years old) back this Sunday to ride a bicycle again in the Emirates Tour. A new new challenge for him Tour winner, especially for those who saw him stamped against a wall at 54 kilometers per hour. For many, a miracle.
It was a June 12 and he was shooting with his former partner Wout Poels to know where to drive the tooth to the initial chronicle of the Dauphin. An oversight hit him against a brick wall, breaking the hip, elbow, fmur, some ribs, the sternum and several vertebrae.
Some eyewitnesses would have signed after seeing the scene the simple fact that Froome was still alive. Others, that the accident will only cost the withdrawal of cycling and sports. But Froome was born in Africa and there I learned to never give up on anything.
At the Saint Etienne Hospital, after 8 hours of operation, the first of a few, immediately launched a sign of optimism and courage, a response aimed at recovering and preparing to achieve his dream: reach the fifth Tour and put his name next to the legendary Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Antquetil and Miguel Indurain.
After 8 months of hard work to tune up his skeleton, after saving the days in intensive care and countless rehabilitation sessions, Froome returns to get “excited” a dorsal.
“No one should underestimate Chris Froome“said the director from the beginning, Dave Brailsford. The technician of the Ineos knows it well, although he saw the difficulties of the British to walk last October.
Froome returns with a huge goal: to fight for the Tour de France with 35 years and for gold in the Olympic Games a week after the Paris podium. Nobody dares to take the opposite, only the road to dictate sentence. Your fitness and total recovery has the answer in time.
David Kinjah, Froome's first coach in Africa, reacts to him because “he was thin and was riding a bike with his elbows open, as if he wanted to fly” But the blond and skeletal boy, raised in Kenya, immediately gets used to an active and adventurous outdoor lifestyle.
And about the laughs, no matter, nobody knew what I was thinking. That challenge, sometimes reckless before wild animals, was for its initial technician, the germ of the spirit that characterizes the double winner of the Tour.
The “resurrections “of Froome have written unforgettable pages in the current cycling. On May 25, 2018, in the nineteenth stage of the Giro between Venaria Reale and Bardonecchia, Froome left more than 3 minutes from British leader Simon Yates and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin. On a day of 184 kilometers and 4 ports, something happened for the story. Uploading the Colle della Finestre, Froome attacked at 80 kilometers to finish. Between applause and some whistles by the positive, then exculpated, in the Vuelta 2017, Froome flew to the finish line and the pink maglia, which he already held until Rome, was covered.
Two years after that feat, doubts come from the purely physical side. Being able to return to your best version ?. His former partner and Tour winner Bradley Wiggins has no doubt. “Chris Froome He is the best cyclist of our generation. I think the accident will rejuvenate it and come back with a new motivation and be even stronger. “I think he has another Tour victory on his legs.”
Alberto counter, the only Spanish cyclist winner of the big three, also hopes to see the best Froome again. “He is a champion and his motivation is to return to the level of before. We must not rule him out at all,” although later on his team he has to deal with the captain's interests, along with the Colombian Egan Bernal, winner of the 2019 Tour and the gals Geraint Thomas.
For Froome the Tour-Tokyo objective He is “realistic”, and history supports him. “In 2012 we did exactly that and certainly the time trial went pretty well with a gold and bronze medal just a few days after the Tour. The hard part is the trip to Japan and the time lag. It will be a difficult challenge, but I think What is posible.
The Olympic Road Race 2020, which will have Mount Fuji as a backdrop, be suitable for climbers
“I had the opportunity to go to see the Olympic route en route and it was a great experience. Although the weather is quite bad, we could still see the main climbs of the race and the final part. Be a true race of climbers “.
Between dreams, Froome returns to compete in the United Arab Emirates, in the only test of the World Tour in the Middle East. First exam after an authentic ordeal. As David Kinjah proudly says: “Froome is a guy who is one hundred percent proving that you are wrong. Just give it a try.”
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