Chris Froome: Rider Profile

• Tuesday, 25 January 2011
• Cycling Weekly
• 0 Comments

Chris Froome in race lead, Vuelta a Espana 2011, stage 10 ITT

• Print
• Comment
• Mail

CHRIS FROOME
Date of birth: 20/05/1985
Team: Sky
Previous teams: Barloworld (2008-2009); Konica Minolta (2007)

Chris Froome career profile
Born in Kenya, Froome moved to South Africa as an adolescent where he took up mountain biking and then road racing. Froome turned professional in 2007 with the Konica Minolta team.

Introduced to the Barloworld team by Robbie Hunter, Froome soon swapped his Kenyan licence for a British one at the start of the 2008 season. Froome was born a Briton, but competed for Kenya (as that was where was born).

Impressing with strong performances at the Giro del Capo and the Giro dell'Appennino, Froome was awarded with a ride in the Tour de France in only his second year as a professional. He almost did not make it to Paris, after team-mate Moises Dueñas' positive test for EPO, but the team soldiered on with Froome taking 84th overall after strong performances in the mountains.

Froome was set to ride for Great Britain at the Olympics but due to an administrative error from the Kenyan authorities, he was prevented from doing so. After a largely disappointing year with Barloworld, in which he did not race as much as he would have liked, Froome joined the British-backed Sky team for 2010.

After an early-season blighted by illness, Froome made his mark on the 2011 Vuelta a Espana riding alongside Bradley Wiggins in Sky's assault on the overall classification. He ended up in the red leader's jersey after placing second behind Tony Martin in the stage 10 individual time trial.

Athough he lost the 2011 Vuelta lead to team-mate Bradley Wiggins the following day, Froome continued to ride strongly in the mountains. Positioned just 22 seconds adrift of leader Juan Jose Cobo before stage 17 of the race, Froome set out to launch a last ditch, do-or-die bid for the race lead in the final, steep kilometre on Peña Cabarga. The resulting duel was one of the most spectacular stage finishes the race has seen in recent years. He did not overthrow Cobo, but Froome won the stage and went on to finish second overall, establishing himself as a bona fide grand tour contender.

Chris Froome results
2011
Vuelta a Espana; stage 17

2009
Cape Argus Giro del Capo Challenge two

2007
Tour of Japan; stage six
Giro delle Regione (under 23s); stage five

2006
Tour of Mauritius; stage two
Tour of Mauritius; stage three

2005
Tour of Mauritius; stage two

Chris Froome photos
Click on the thumbnails below to open a larger image in a new window.

Related links
Cycling Weekly's Rider Profiles: Index