Ex-Tour winner Chris Froome finally knows the cause after years of back problems: “At first I thought it was age”

Will the ordeal of Chris Froome (38) in the peloton come to an end? If it depends on him, yes. The British ex-Tour winner has consistently struggled with back problems in recent years, but after some research he came to a striking conclusion. “I took my old bike to a specialist and we discovered very big differences between my positions,” said Froome at Cyclingnews.

The career of 38-year-old Chris Froome seemed to fizzle out completely after his switch to Israel Start-Up Nation (now Israel-Premier Tech). The Briton, who had been successful in the Tour de France for years, seemed to have completely lost his qualities after a lot of injuries. That made him think hard.

“At first I thought it was the age,” explains 38-year-old Froome. “But then I started questioning my position on the bike and started comparing. I still had one of my old bikes from my time at Team Sky/INEOS, so I could compare the two different bikes. I discovered that there was a difference in the reach (the distance between the point of the saddle and the handlebars, ed.). My new bike was three centimeters longer.”

That observation immediately made Froome switch gears. “I took my old bike to a specialist and we discovered very big differences between my positions. But now we have made changes. When it comes to saddle height, it’s more than centimeters. And the reach is also about a lot. We are not talking about millimeters here.”

Back to the Tour?

Now that Froome seems to have found the reason for his problems, the calls for a return to the Tour are becoming louder. “This is something positive for me,” said Froome. “I notice that it gives me a lot of motivation, because it can be part of the puzzle, a missing piece, in the explanation for not achieving the desired level. If I can return to the Tour de France and be there when the race becomes selective, whether that’s to win another stage or even try to go for a classification, for whatever position… That would be a dream .”