I saw an article at Cyclingnews.com that said that Chris Froome would be targeting fewer races in 2014 than he did in 2013. It was nearly the exact same article content I saw in late 2012 about Bradley Wiggins and how he wanted to change up a few things.
These guys are nuts. Chris Froome won 13 races in 2013, including the Tour de France, the Tour of Oman, Critérium International, the Tour de Romandie, the Critérium du Dauphiné. He was also second in Tirreno–Adriatico and finished third in the world team time trial championships. He is currently leading the UCI World Tour Individual Points ranking. Why would he change a thing?
Part of the beauty of sport is being able to recognize the changes you make and how they affect your performance. Changing for the sake of change makes no sense in sport. Look how well the 2013 season went for Bradley Wiggins. He won nearly every race he did in 2012, then struggled the whole season, in comparison, in 2013. He decided to change it up because, why?
If you look over the last 3 or 4 years of Chris Frrome results, he won more in 2013 than he’d won his whole career racing bikes combined. If I were him, I would mimic my training and racing of the 2013 season to a t. Exactly the same mileage, same races, same everything. I would have to assume that he would be extremely happy having the same season next year as he had this one. How could he not?
Maybe because all that insane training and monastic lifestyle is sort of a drag? idk, I suck at bike races.
1) Wiggo too mentally fragile to go through the 2012 routine again and/or 2) made a rational decision that he didn’t want to go through the sacrifices required in 2012 again. Hinault or Mercxk he is not.
p.s. Wiggins and not Froome finished third in the world team time trial championships.
The guy raced once a month for 6 months and was on a podium of some kind every single time in 2013. In 2012, he rode alongside Wiggo doing the same thing AND the “peak” lasted 7 months including the Olympics.
Yet, mysteriously, has no lower-ranked racing results to suggest he was capable of this and now mysteriously cannot finish lower-ranked events. Seems legit.
Wiggins was 2nd in the ITT, Froome did the TTT.
If you race more grand tours, and specific monument races, you stand the chance of a positive blood test. I don’t mean to open up the doping argument in regards to Sky, but the tint of improbability in how they develop riders fits a pattern that does not seem quite right. If you look at the input of Sky dominating specific races, not just a rider, but the team wins, they accomplish their goals for their sponsor. It is more of a team sport mentality. If you look at the fact that they get the win, by any means possible, hide their riders, keep them “clean” on tests, they look golden.
Sean Yates was an insider at Sky. One would think he is also probably fairly old school in his training and racing philosophy but he seems to concur with Froome’s new approach: ““To be brutally honest, there is no one at Sky who knows much about bike riding. In general, this year especially, the guys running the team don’t know enough about bike-riding and a lot of the riders went into the Tour overtired. They are made to race too much, too long, too hard.”
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/yates-defends-armstrong-but-is-critical-of-team-sky
Perhaps Froome sees the potential for burnout and is smart enough to know when to dial it back? The guy seems pretty smart, and has done a lot of racing this year. Oh, and he’s 28 years old; lots of career left.
Dial what back? The guy raced once a month for about 6 months.
Too risky… ?
And I’m sure he was sitting on his couch between races?
Drinking to much beer is not good for you, drinking good beer all the time with peaks on occasion is the way to go. Same for any sport..African runners did every race in the old days, than they disappeared..today they pick only a few races and sustain a long career. Froome is no dummy and he may get married soon..and spending more time with your wife is the smart thing to do. Riding is fun but it does not even come close to spending time with your Lady or other loved ones or just having a great party with friends etc…and Froome and Wiggie are not getting any younger…hello…
It seems like the idea is that the public attention, travel, testing etc that form the ancillary stress of racing is “toxic” and to be avoided when possible. Training is more controlled therefore better than racing as prep for the big monuments the sponsors like. I think it’s time for minimum # of racing days in order to maintain a pro license.