Froome belongs to the ages as the joint second-most successful Tour de France winner, on four wins with the current modern day legend Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia.
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, to British parents, Froome switched nationality in 2008 and signed for Team Sky in 2010 as part of Sir Dave Brailsford’s high-budget project to be the first British team to win the Tour de France.
Alongside his domination of the yellow jersey, Froome also won time trial bronze medals for Great Britain at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, as well as bronze in the time trial at the Road World Championships in Bergen, Norway, in 2017.
As part of his Grand Tour achievements, he won two stages of the Giro d’Italia and five stages of the Vuelta, plus he won three editions of the Criterium du Dauphine.
But it was the sport’s greatest race, the Tour de France, for which Froome saved himself.
Froome was the beneficiary of the famous ‘Sky Train’ – an ultra-disciplined version of burning through a road cycling team’s domestiques at a pace none of their competitors could cope with – thanks in part to a fitness regime and a scientific approach the sport had not seen before.
Froome once said: “I knew I had a chance to make a big impact on this sport when I started training with Italian teams. They would finish a ride and then hit the beer and pizza.”
But as clinical as his victories were with Team Sky, Froome’s own race craft often made the difference.
On the 2016 Tour, he descended at a frightening pace, crouching down on to the top tube of his bike in a ‘super tuck’ position, while still pedalling, to assume the most aerodynamic position – a technique now banned over safety concerns.
His greatest moment might have come during 2018’s Giro d’Italia win after a comeback that included winning stage 19 by a staggering three minutes.
Froome never appeared to fully recover from his 2019 crash, and much of his time with the Israeli team saw him suffer complications from the injuries he sustained, which included a broken femur and hip.
His best result was a distant third on stage 12 of the 2022 Tour de France in which Tom Pidcock took victory at the summit of Alpe d’Huez following his famous high-speed descent off the Col du Galibier.
After 2022 Froome never returned to the race that meant so much to him, and for which he is so fondly remembered.
