Chris Froome’s ongoing drive to form part of Israel-Premier Tech’s Tour de France line-up will see the Briton add a new one-day race on his program, the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge after taking part in the Critérium du Dauphiné.
According to an interview with team sports director Rik Verbrugghe in Belgium’s La Dernière Heure, just two spots out of the Israel-Premier Tech eight-man line-up for the Tour de France remain available, and it has yet to be decided if one of them will go to Froome.
After a promising performance in the tough Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes, placing eleventh on a day when teammates Jakob Fuglsang and Mike Woods secured the top two positions, Verbrugghe said the 37-year-old's Tour de France participation would hinge on his next races.
“It all depends on the Dauphiné,” Verbrugghe told La Dernière Heure, “and how he goes in June. He’ll do the Mont Ventoux race [on June 14th] after the Dauphiné.”
Froome has never raced the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé, about to celebrate its fifth edition, and which has Miguel Angel López (Astana Qazaqstan) as defending champion, while he is a three-times winner of the Dauphiné. However, he has raced multiple times on the Ventoux over the years, most notably in the 2016 Tour de France where a dramatic entanglement with a TV motorbike saw him forced to run up the part of a climb before swapping his bike.
Verbrugghe underlined that the team’s main WorldTour goal for GC in June would be the Tour de Suisse with Fuglsang, and that their team in the Dauphiné would not be as powerful as the one Israel-Premier Teach are sending to the premier Swiss stage race.
“Suisse is our priority,” he said, “and with Fuglsang, we’ll go for the podium or even the overall victory. He’s got the team he needs to help him.”
“But we’re going to the Dauphiné with a Chris Froome who’s coming up fast. I’m impatient to see how he gets on in that race.”
Verbrugghe said of Israel-Premier Tech’s long list of 12 racers for the Tour, six were now confirmed and six to be decided. He also said that the team would very likely be looking for stage wins, not the GC in the Tour.
Froome himself has recognised he has very mixed experiences in the Criterium du Dauphiné, which starts Sunday. The Briton told his team website “I have some great memories from this race – with six stage wins and overall victories in ‘13, ‘15 & ‘16. Unfortunately, I’ve also had my fair share of bad ones with my big crash in 2019 and I’m hoping to finally put that behind me this year.”
“I’ve seen some big progressions in my form over the last two months, and I hope to continue to build on it to put myself in the best possible position for July.”
Regarding what could be expected of Froome in the Dauphiné, Verbrugghe said “it’s difficult to say. He’s coming back strongly, but the Dauphiné will really show what his current capacity is like at the highest level. In training, his data is heading in the right direction. But now we have to see what he can do in the race. But the signs are good.”
Verbrugghe confirmed they would give Froome the green light for the Tour if they thought a stage win was within his power, adding “that would be fantastic.”
