Froome faces his last year more realistic than ever: "I no longer look at the results"

Chris Froome's final pedal strokes of 2024 as he is currently representing Israel-PremierTech in the Tour de Guangxi, a World Tour category race where teams usually send their B lineups unless they urgently need points due to their position in the campaign almost finished. The British rider is starting to accept that 2025 will be his last year as a professional cyclist.

Chris Froome finishes another unprecedented season competing in the Tour De Guangxi

Regarded by many as "the worst signing in history," four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome is nearing the end of his career as his contract with his current team, Israel-PremierTech, whom he joined in 2020 after a year marked by a serious crash in Dauphiné and his departure from INEOS, will come to an end at the end of 2025. Given his poor performance since then, with only that breakaway in the Tour de France on the way to Alpe d'Huez in the stage won by Tom Pidcock as his brightest moment, it seems impossible for him to continue as a professional cyclist at the age of 39.

Chris Froome himself seems to have already accepted this, at least that's what can be inferred from his statements during the Tour de Guangxi where he appears as a relaxed cyclist, enjoying life, helping his team as much as his legs allow, and not stressing "I no longer look at results. Being realistic, I can no longer compete for victories but I am still very motivated to race and I still have a lot of fun on the bike" Froome stated.

Froome, who has barely competed for about thirty days this season, has had a truly atypical calendar, usually reserved for lower-level cyclists in teams, basically including minor races and places where the team has to be present many times out of obligation, such as this Tour de Guangxi which, with the season almost over and being on the other side of the world, poses a real challenge for teams forced to compete in the World Tour category of the race.

The British rider takes it from a positive perspective "This season I have been in places I never expected, at least in places where I had never competed before: Rwanda, Romania, China..." while also embracing his role as a domestique and guide for the younger cyclists on the team, providing them with all the experience accumulated throughout his career.

Looking ahead to 2025, his dream would be to race the Tour de France one last time, but it will be extremely challenging given the low level he has been showing and, let's not forget, next year will be the season where promotions and relegations in the World Tour will be defined, where Israel-PremierTech will try to regain the category they lost at the end of 2022.