Chris Froome turned 38 in May but insists he is "feeling five years younger again" after a change in bike position cured his lower back pain. Time has even changed his opinion on disc brakes, with the four-time Tour de France winner now embracing the technology after initial doubts and some mismatched components on his race bike.
Froome will end his 2023 season at the Japan Cup and spoke about his difficult 2023 season but also his motivation for 2024 during a visit to the Factor factory in Taiwan. He again shrugged off criticism from team owner Sylvan Adams and his doubters, making it clear he will race on in 2024. He was presented with a specially painted Factor O2 Vam, which recalled his childhood in Africa and his love for wildlife.
Froome has only raced for 37 days during the 2023 season. He has struggled in races and was not selected for the Tour de France. He has only ridden the recent Tour of Hainan since late July but refuses to throw in the towel responding to his critics with a smile and desire to race and even fight for a place in the Israel-Premier Tech Tour de France squad.
"I don't want to set a limit on what I'm able to achieve. I just want to get the best out of myself. I want to be able to look back once I've retired and say that I've given it everything, no regrets," Froome told our sister site Cycling Weekly and other media from Taiwan.
"Whether that means winning a bike race again and putting my arms in the air, or just helping my teammates, I'm good with that. I think a lot of people really don't understand - you've won all the biggest Grand Tours in cycling, how can you be happy just to be a team player? And I genuinely just love racing. I love racing, I love being in the team environment, and whether that's winning or not winning."
"I think I can only really control where I can get to as a bike rider and the preparation that I can do before the Tour de France to put myself in the best position to be chosen for the Tour next year."
Froome's successful Grand Tour was cut short in 2019 when he crashed while warming up for the time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné. He suffered life-threatening injuries and multiple fractures. He needed months of rehabilitation even to return to the peloton. He was a shadow of his former self but refused to quit despite a long series of setbacks.
The latest was a back pain that hurt his form in 2023. A detailed bike fit proved to be the solution.
"I had an appointment with a bike set-up specialist, to go and really check and see all the angles. Basically to get closer to and try and copy the position that I was sitting at previously when I was winning races. I found that there was actually a really big difference in those two set-ups," Froome revealed, referring to the position he had when racing on a Pinarello for the best years of his career.
"We've made some big, big changes in terms of my position and I am feeling much better now. And interestingly the back pain has just disappeared, so I think that was very much down to how I was sitting on the bike."
"Even though I came into the Tour of Hainan a little bit sick after travelling, I came out feeling super. I'm really feeling five years younger again. I wanted to go into the break, feeling energetic, feeling completely rejuvenated.
"It's given me a bit of newfound motivation I guess, in terms of thinking about next season and how I will approach next year. I've got no expectations on myself, but at the same time, I would really like to get back to the pointy end of racing again, so that's really given me that bit of hope now."
I have warmed to disc brakes
Being an investor at Factor gives Froome direct involvement in the brand and so the bikes he races on at Israel-Premier Tech. His relationship meant he was able to fast-track a new handlebar design this year and he is no longer a disc brake doubter.
In 2021 he said "I don't think the technology is quite where it needs to be yet" and experienced the problems of slow disc brake wheel changes this year while on the attack at the Tour du Rwanda.
"When I first started riding with disc brakes, the industry was still quite new to disc brakes," he explained from Taiwan.
"No fault of Factor, but I think some of the components we were using on the bike weren't necessarily 100% compatible. That combination, chopping and changing pieces of equipment, when I joined the team, wasn't a great thing for the disc brake scenario. It did lead to problems in the first year with the team. My initial impression of disc brakes on the road was skewed by that experience.
"In the last year and a half of running disc brakes I've definitely had way less problems and it's certainly been a lot better, a much better experience for me. I have warmed to disc brakes. There's no two ways about it, it does take more maintenance, more work. But when it works, it is great."
