Cycling great Froome questions safety of time-trial bikes
Cycling great Froome questions safety of time-trial bikes
Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome has suggested high-speed time-trial bikes have no place in road racing following his own career changing accident three years ago and that of fellow Grand Tour winner Egan Bernal in January.
Froome's former Team Sky teammate Bernal broke 20 bones, including two vertebrae when the 2019 Tour de France winner hit a bus at high speed in Colombia while training on a time-trial bike.
Unlike climb specialist Bernal, Froome was a master at the art of time-trialling and based his four Tour de France titles around that strength.
But the now 36-year-old Froome almost lost his own life in June 2019 when preparing for a time-trial at the Criterium du Dauphine, hitting a wall at 60km per hour due to a gust of wind and has never regained his top form.
Froome also says eliminating specialist material would promote the physical side of the sport.
"The point I'm trying to make and the question I'm trying to ask is, is it really necessary to have time-trial bikes in road cycling," Froome said on his Youtube channel.
Froome even suggested that the current situation was unfair.
"Given the dangers involved in both training and racing, and the discrepancy with time trial bikes, would it not be a lot more uniform to have time trials done on road bikes. It would make a level playing field," said the Israel Premier Tech rider.
"It would be more about the skill of the rider and not so much about the research and development, and time in the wind tunnel," he said.
Evoking the accident that happened to Bernal, Froome said his theory was also based on reality.
"How many roads do you know, near you, where you can literally ride for an hour in almost closed road conditions," he asked.
"Those conditions don't really exist in the real world."
F.Hartmann--MP
