He is very far from the level of his great years, when he knocked out the Tour de France in the jersey of the Sky team. But Christopher Froome found the pleasure of running in the lead, Thursday, on the roads of the twelfth stage of the Grande Boucle between Briançon and Alpe d’Huez. The 37-year-old Briton, now leader of the Israel-Premier Tech team, broke away from the peloton at the end of the ascent of Galibier, the first of the three hors category passes of the day.
Then, the quadruple winner of the Grande Boucle chained the kilometers within the leading group until attacking Alpe d’Huez with four other riders. And if he could not follow Thomas Pidcock, winner of the day, and Louis Meintjes, Froome savored his escapade.
“We wanted to aim for stages like today, so I tried my luck in the breakaway. I have no regrets”, he explains, all smiles, in the streets of the Iséroise resort. Because even if he never seemed to impose himself, one of the rare winners of the three Grand Tours has at least avoided going to the gruppetto, which has become his daily life since his return from his injury, a fracture of the femur, in 2019. Then in the colors of Ineos-Grenadiers, he had fallen heavily during the recognition of a time trial on the Critérium du Dauphiné.
“When you know where I’m coming from and after everything I’ve been through in the past three years after my accident, I’m happy to finish third in one of the most difficult stages of this Tour de France,” he whispered. he. I will keep trying, I don’t know where my limits are. “On Twitter, the ex-terror of the platoons published four photos of his day, simply accompanied by a” happiness is… “. Far from the yellow jersey, but it is a page of his life turned for a long time.
