We quite like both Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, but they’re not to everyone’s tastes. Chris Froome, however – as a Brit, how can you not get behind Chris Froome?
The man has been suffering from bilharzia, a tropical parasite, for the last couple of years. He picked it up in Kenya, where he was born, and it comes and goes. When he suffers, it drains his strength and leaves him tired and susceptible to illness. Considering professional cycling is largely about training volume, this has been a massive handicap.
Even so, he returned to racing late last season and promptly equalled Britain’s best ever Grand Tour result by finishing second in the Vuelta d’Espana, even though he’d been supporting Wiggins for the majority of the race. Since then, he’s had pneumonia and then somehow managed to contract typhoid at his brother’s wedding. Presumably, when he’s not suffering from debilitating illness, he finds that cycling’s suddenly much easier.
His attributes don’t end there, however. He’s also kind of absent-minded. He cycled the Tour prologue with white plugs in his nostrils that prevented him breathing. They’re meant to open the airways while you warm up, so that you can breathe BETTER during the race. He also wore his special aerodynamic shoe covers on the wrong feet. He also got a puncture towards the end of stage one, losing a minute and a bit and was involved in a late stage three crash which saw him land on an advertising hoarding.
Honestly, what’s not to like?
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