What Happens Now That Froome Won the Giro?
When Chris Froome went into the Giro d’Italia’s final rest day nearly five minutes down on race leader Simon Yates, much of the cycling world breathed a collective sigh of relief.
You see, Froome has been mired in scandal since December, when it was revealed that he had tested for twice the allowed amount of asthma medication salbutamol during last year’s Vuelta a Espa?a. Riders who return such findings are given a chance to explain themselves and, in some cases, can be absolved of any wrongdoing. Typically this happens behind the scenes, free from the public eye. However, news of Froome’s result was made public-after he had announced that he would ride the 2018 Giro.
After weeks of speculation, and despite calls from cycling officials and fans to voluntarily suspend himself until his case was resolved, Froome started his season in February. Weeks passed with no resolution, and as the Giro crept closer, everyone got nervous that Froome would start the race, win it, and then face the embarrassing possibility of having his win vacated should he be found to have committed a doping violation.
So when he fell five minutes behind in the Giro’s first two weeks, we thought a sticky situation had been averted. But a strong time trial on Stage 16 saw Froome gain time on most of his rivals, followed by a strong finish on Stage 18, the first of three days in the Alps. Then came Stage 19, and one of the most stunning comebacks in the history of pro cycling: Froome, buoyed by a stunning collapse from Yates, attacked on the lower slopes of the Giro’s highest climb, the Colle delle Finestre, and won the stage by almost four minutes to take the Pink Jersey as the race’s new overall leader.
After one more day in the mountains, Froome rode into Rome on Sunday to join Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault as the only riders to ever win all three Grand Tours in succession.
“A week ago, I didn’t believe that I’d be here in the Maglia Rosa,” Froome said in a post-race press conference. “To recover more than three minutes-it had been done before but it seemed unlikely. Stage 19 with the Colle delle Finestre was the moment the race turned around for me.”
Next stop for Froome is July’s Tour de France, where he hopes to join Merckx, Hinault, Jacques Anquetil, and Miguel Indurain as the only riders to win five Grand Tours, and the first since 1998 to win the Giro and the Tour in the same season.
The more Froome wins, the more complicated his situation gets. Riders have been suspended and retroactively forfeited race wins for having similar amounts of salbutamol in their bodies. Right now, Froome could lose his victories in both last year’s Vuelta and this year’s Giro. If a resolution isn’t reached before the Tour and he pulls off another win, he could lose that title, too.
Rumors have swirled as to when Froome and the UCI will reach a resolution, but it’s looking more and more unlikely that it will happen before the Tour. Froome is well within his right to race right now; the rules state that he can. But the more he wins, the higher the stakes become.
Legal issues aside, what are his chances? Pulling off a Giro-Tour double is a tall order. The last rider to do it, Marco Pantani, most likely doped his way to victories in both races in 1998. Other riders have fallen short, often catastrophically. Nairo Quintana, for example, finished second in last year’s Giro before recording the worst Tour finish of his career.
In Froome’s favor is the fact that he clearly timed his peak for the final days of the Giro, a gamble that paid off. Assuming he raced at his best for only about a week, he still might have enough left in his tank for the Tour. And with this year’s start scheduled one week later than usual thanks to the World Cup, Froome has more time to recover from the Giro.
Most importantly, he has the world’s strongest team at his side. With a deep squad that’s likely to include recent Tour of California winner Egan Bernal, Froome should have more than enough support to win his fifth Tour.
But “can he?” and “should he?” are two entirely different questions. Were it not for his test results being leaked, we wouldn’t even know about the investigation. But we do know, and Froome and his team know that we know. Yet they continue to race anyway.
If the worst happens-if Froome wins the Tour but is later forced to relinquish his titles-the outcome could cause irrevocable damage to a sport struggling to regain its credibility. Even UCI President David Lappartient, one of the most outspoken opponents of Froome’s continued competition, seems pessimistic about resolving the situation before the Tour.
“At the beginning, I was expecting a decision before the Giro when we spoke about this in September,” he told Cyclingnews. “Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. I don’t know if we’ll be able to have this before July.”
While Lappartient is powerless to force the issue, ASO, the organization that runs the Tour, is contractually allowed to exclude riders and teams that could damage the image of the race. (It has done so in the past, but it has also been prevented from excluding riders on appeal.) Barring Froome would certainly ignite a new legal battle, but it could also prevent an even messier outcome should Froome compete and win.
For now, all we can hope is that the matter gets “settled” on the road. Maybe Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali regains the fitness that saw him defeat Froome in 2014. Maybe Movistar-with Quintana, Alejandro Valverde, and Mikel Landa all peaking for the event-learns from the tactical ineptitude it displayed in past editions and gives Team Sky more than it can handle. Maybe French favorite Romain Bardet, buoyed by his podium finishes in 2016 and 2017, finds a way to become the first French Tour winner since 1985.
As we saw last week at the Giro, stranger things have happened.
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