“I think we’re probably one of the only sports in the world where if someone says there’s a dangerous little bridge or a pinch point in two kilometres time, the whole peloton speeds up because everyone wants to get there first. In other sports I’ve seen, in Formula One and everything else, if there’s danger ahead, everyone slows down. It seems to be the opposite in cycling.”
Chris Froome is one of the most successful riders in modern cycling history. It’s easy to forget as headlines and cameras flash at young prodigies like Remco Evenepoel, or multi-disciplinary super talents like Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, but Froome has four Tour de France titles, two Vuelta a España titles and a victory at the Giro d’Italia to his name.
After almost a decade in the professional peloton, the 37-year-old admitted, speaking at the Tour de France Prudential Criterium in Singapore, that the sport has changed in recent years. “Races are being taken on earlier,” he told Rouleur. “But the older way that a race would be ridden can no longer be the rulebook, or the stencil, for how races are ridden now.
“We’re seeing guys attacking a lot further out. We’re seeing a lot more aggressive racing on the descents now than previously. It used to be something that was almost frowned upon in the peloton, if the team that was controlling the race just suddenly go full gas down the descent and split the peloton, whereas now it’s almost become the norm for that to happen,” the Israel-Premier Tech rider explains.
He notes that new technology has been a driver for these changes in recent years. “I believe a big contributor to the way racing has changed is actually the access to information that’s available. All the race directors in the cars have the application Velo Viewer, that really shows every little pinch point or every danger point on the road so every single rider in the peloton knows there’s danger coming.”
After suffering a career-threatening crash while on a recon of the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial in 2019 that left him with a fractured right femur, a fractured elbow and fractured ribs, Froome has struggled to come back to full health and fitness ever since.
He explains that he’s had to learn how to adapt to the new style of aggressive racing that’s ripping through the peloton. “It means you have to be a little bit more prepared. You have to really rely on the people directing us in the cars even more for that…