Israel-Premier Tech team owner Sylvan Adams appears to be pushing Chris Froome towards retirement at the end of the 2023 season, suggesting to Cycling Weekly and the Radio Cycling podcast that Froome had “absolutely not” proven value for money.
Adams also suggested that Froome’s lack of results in recent months, and his consequential non-selection for the Tour de France, “have nothing to do with” the serious injuries he sustained in his terrible crash in 2019.
“How could we say we had value for money? We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team and he’s not even here so that cannot be considered value for money,” Adams said bluntly while also highlighting his respect for the seven-time Grand Tour winner.
“This is not a PR exercise. Chris isn’t a symbol, he isn’t a PR tool, he’s supposed to be our leader at the Tour de France and he’s not even here, so no I couldn’t say he’s value for money.”
It has wrongly been reported that Froome is earning as much as €5 million per season – Froome denied that to Cyclingnews back in 2021.
Cyclingnews understands that the figure was linked to a sponsor that eventually opted not to come on board, with Froome estimated to earn around €1 million from Israel-Premier Tech.
Adams has already explained that Froome has a rolling contract that allows the four-time Tour de France winner to race on until he is 40 in 2025 but the agreement with Adams also means Froome will retire after his time at Israel-Premier Tech.
Adams now appears keen to make room for new young riders to emerge at Israel-Premier Tech after the likes of Derek Gee emerged at the Giro d’Italia. However, Froome is keen to race on in 2024 and even return to the Tour de France.
On Thursday, apparently, soon after being contacted for reaction to Adams’ comments and as Israel-Premier Tech published a video of Froome promoting Israel as a tourist destination, Froome again spoke about his disappointment at not being selected for the Tour de France in a video titled: “I WAS READY FOR THE TOUR.”
He said in the video he believed he had “a lot more to give and a lot more to show” and described not making the Tour de France teams as “a pretty big disappointment and pretty big let down.”
Froome claimed mechanical problems stopped him showing his form but his best result in a low-profile 2023 season was 14th in the Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes one-day race.
Adams argued that Froome simply hadn’t…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…