Paris (AFP)
He had left the pack in an ambulance in June. Christopher Froome, still limping, made his return on stage at the presentation of the Tour de France 2020 Tuesday by cultivating doubt about his participation, simple precaution or question mark?
Will Christopher Froome be at the start of the 2020 Tour de France in an attempt to equal the 5 record wins of Merckx or Hinault? "Impossible to say," swept the British seriously injured on June 12 during the recognition of the time trial of Dauphine.
"In my case, I must already find my level before even starting to talk about who will be the leader or this kind of things", evacuated the rider of the team Ineos (ex-Sky) crippled fractures (cervical vertebra, femur, hip, elbow, ribs) after the heavy fall that had deprived him of the last Tour.
An edition won by one of his teammates, the Colombian Egan Bernal, after the 2018 Tour already won by Geraint Thomas of the same team.
"There are 8 months left (by the beginning of the next Tour, ed.) .I still need two or three months to correct the weaknesses inherited from my fall but I hope in a few months to find the level I had last season ", is projected" Froomey ", still a little in the fog.
The quadruple winner of the Tour explained Sunday currently pedaling only 35% with his right leg, the fractured one, in an interview with France-Télévisions.
And he must again move to the operating table at the end of the month: "I still have a plaque to remove from the hip," he detailed Tuesday.
He will be 35 years old in the summer of 2020, and yet difficult not to imagine trying to pick a 5th Tour in nine months. Especially when the event starts from Nice, a few kilometers from his Monegasque residence. "The Tour will be a huge source of motivation," he said.
Only the decision, in gestation, does not belong to him completely: beyond his physical state, his team, which counts now three winners of the Great Loop since the hatching of Egan Bernal, will decide it.
"We will analyze it as always, look at the course of the Giro (which must be unveiled on October 24, ed), the Vuelta too," explained the manager of Ineos Dave Brailsfrod. "Nothing is decided," confirmed Froome.
"We will examine everything in depth and then we will decide on our tactics that will determine our program.It's like a puzzle and by the end of November, we will have our plan," announces "Dave B." without giving more clues in the meantime.
"Someone like Chris or Geraint but also all of our guys who see the course say + I can win +," dilutes Brailsford.
© 2019 AFP