Dhe four-time Tour de France winner Christopher Froome leaves the British racing team Ineos at the end of the season. The team announced this on Thursday. “Chris’ current contract expires in December and we have made the decision not to renew the contract,” said team principal Dave Brailsford.
The announcement of the breakup “earlier than usual” to end recent speculations about Froomes future, as Brailsford justified. Froome thanked the team and added that his focus was now on “winning the Tour de France with Team Ineos a fifth time”.
What Froome will do from the coming racing year 2021 was initially unanswered. The latest speculation was whether the 35-year-old would switch to the Israel Start Up Nation team before the corona-delayed start of the tour (August 29 to September 20).
The world association UCI has another transfer window from August 1 to 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic. A quick change in summer is now off the table with the Ineos message from Thursday. Froome has called the past ten years “a phenomenal decade.”
Froome won the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, each with the Ineos predecessor Sky. In the end, the Brit got more and more competition from his own team. In 2018 his compatriot Geraint Thomas secured the tour title in a direct duel with Froome. In 2019, when Froome failed after a serious fall, Colombian Egan Bernal, who also drives for Team Ineos, triumphed for the first time.
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