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A grin. To not really smile. To hide his embarrbadment and a bit of his pain too. In the evening of Thursday, July 5, Christopher Froome faces the public who came to attend the presentation of the teams of the Tour de France in La Roche-sur-Yon. He is booed. "Cheater, doped, go home! Fly to the 33-year-old runner.
The four-time winner of the Tour cash in the best. His historic quest to join the list of "the most beautiful race in the world" Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, five successes each, looks long and dangerous.
Whistles as a welcome for Christopher Froome
The Briton, leader of the Sky team, is preparing to write a new chapter of an already rich life like a long novel. But the episode of its abnormal control of salbutamol – a medicine used to cure asthma – during the last Vuelta, will mark a turning point.
A large part of the public does not accept the decision of the International Federation (UCI) to whitewash it just before the start of this Great Loop.
"He lived a real nightmare"
ten months of proceedings were endless in every respect, as much for the observers, the followers of the pack as for the person concerned. He won the Giro d'Italia at the end of May but ran with a sword of Damocles over his head.
"He had a real nightmare," says Dave Brailsford, Sky's manager. To be accused of something you have not done is terrible. On the emotional level, I saw him: he suffered, it's clear. His family too. But, overall, he has a very, very strong character. He has the ability to compartmentalize things and there he continued to focus on racing, training, work.
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This steel mind, Chris Froome built it over the years. Traveling from the age of 13, with his friend David Kinjah, on the demanding roads of the Rift Valley to Lake Magadi, Kenya. Then, after the divorce of his parents, following his father in South Africa where he will include the University of Johannesburg. He also overcame Bilharzia, a parasitic infection, in two stages.
Today, Froome, who lives in Monaco with his wife Michelle and their son Kellan (2 years and a half), surprises his family. "I have always been impressed by his behavior outside the bike. But his attitude in recent months is incredible, "says his teammate Geraint Thomas.
Froome and the Tour de France, a complicated story
Despite everything, a veil of distrust has, it seems, always existed between Froome and the audience of the Tour de France. He discovers the event, in 2008, in the anonymity of the Barloworld training and finishes 84th. After joining Sky in 2010, he is expelled from the Tour of Italy for being towed by a motorcycle in an ascent.
"I know he is innocent"
Last year, microphone in hand on the podium of the Champs-Elysees, he claims that it will never dishonor "the yellow jersey" and that its results "will stand the test of time". But the damage is done.
A situation that "paints" Nicolas Portal, the sports director of Team Sky. "I know he's innocent," said the 39-year-old former rider about the salbutamol case. I do not even need to ask the question, I know it. It would be the same with my child. But when we see the relentlessness of some people in his own country and his sport who know absolutely nothing, neither on the record, nor on the man, it hurts … "
With his singing accent of the South- West, Portal agrees to lift a veil on the personality of Chris Froome. "I do not know what image the general public has of him," he says. I imagine that we see him as an Anglo-Saxon, cold enough, all in control, without emotion, who does his job without pbadion. But, in fact, as a person and as a champion – who are two closely related aspects – he is a simple, healthy person. And I think that because he's simple, he's down to earth, he manages to manage all these things so complex in terms of stress, media, expectations. Mentally, he is balanced.
The unconditional support of his wife Michelle
To observe Froome, this Thursday, July 5, respond attentively to all the solicitations of the spectators who came to meet him on the parking lot of his hotel, we can only praise his availability. "It's really that a generous, kind and funny man, "said his wife Michelle Cound in 2013.
" But what I love most is that it has not changed since the first moment ", She added, thinking of the year 2008 when they met.
Michelle Cound has always defended Froome against attacks, especially on social networks. "Michelle was perhaps a little more present at the beginning of Chris's career," says Nicolas Portal. It may not have been ideal for him. She also learned to find her place. I hope it's a bit more professional, it has to be, because it's complicated. But he gets a lot of support from him. It makes him feel good. It may be that he is even stronger.
" Doping is flying "
After having achieved the perfect sequence Tour de France 2017 – Vuelta 2017 – Giro 2018, Froome can hope to continue its victorious series. "Now, it's going to be a killer! Announces Portal.
What a wink when we think back to the rider that he was arriving in spring 2007 at the World Cycling Center of Aigle (Switzerland). "He was always on the bad, he kept falling," said Michel Thèze, his coach at that time, in an interview with Telegram in 2015.
Soon, however, the potential of Froome would explode. "Honestly, I had never seen a rider perform such tests at the World Center, he was well above the rest," said Thèze. But I did not imagine winning the Tour de France. Potentially, I knew he could go far but it takes so little to miss a career. We'll say what we want but I think he was very lucky to be recruited by Sky, a team that understood right away that she had gold in her hands. "
Forcibly, the suspicions also saddened the Breton coach. "He is a boy who has a very good education. I can not imagine for a moment that he's a thief, he said again. Because to dope is to steal. Chris is someone of a very big correction. "
Almost echoing, three years later, Froome, marked by the reception that was reserved for him by the Vendée public, published a tribune in Le Monde. It concludes with these words: "Winning a race based on a lie would be a defeat for me. I could never let that happen.
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