London (AFP)
"I'm happy to be alive, I'm happy to be on the road to recovery," admitted four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, who suffered multiple fractures after a fall in June, in an interview with Daily Telegraph, released Friday.
"There is a five-minute window where I can not remember anything," said the runner, who suffered fractures to a cervical vertebra, femur, elbow, hip and ribs after falling on a reconnaissance before a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. This fall had left fears that his career was over at 34 years.
"I guess the fact of not remembering anything will make this fall not haunt me, in a sense," he added, as he prepares his comeback for the Olympics-2020 and of course the large loop.
"The time trial race and the online race in Tokyo are very tempting," he said.
"And as they come a week after the Tour - assuming I do the Tour - it's almost perfect, I'd like to try my luck on both," said Froome.
"Attempting to win a fifth round by returning from a fall that could have ended my career, it would be even bigger," continued the British who would equal Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
"All those who said after my accident + It's over, it will never get back to the Tour + just motivate me more."
The challenge is daunting: no rider 35 years or older has won the Tour de France since the Belgian Firmin Lambot in 1922 and the last winner, his teammate at Ineos, the Colombian Egan Bernal, is 12 years younger than him .
© 2019 AFP