“And they’re turning pro and being able to beat the best in the world, so it’s been quite amazing to witness that.” Longtime coach Tim Kerrison with Chris Froome in 2017 (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) Froome on racing with data: ‘I am aware of numbers’ĭuring his heyday, Froome was often accused of racing off the data provided via his power meter.
“We are seeing this young talent coming through because they’ve already been training five, six years from their early teens in a really structured way,” he said. Today, riders are fast-tracked into the WorldTour, and in some cases, have an immediate impact on the highest levels of international racing.įroome insists the wider adaption of powermeters in all aspects of racing and training is a key factor behind the youth movement reshaping the WorldTour order. When riders of Froome’s generation were coming up, the more established route was to race as an amateur or semi-pro in the U23 ranks before perhaps earning a spot on a second-tier team before hitting the WorldTour-level in the mid-20s. Shared power data also allows team managers, coaches, and sport directors to have real insight into a prospective rider’s motor and capacity to identify top talent at an even younger age. Is it all due to power meters? Not entirely, but they’re an important tool that helps younger riders train like pros at an even earlier stage of their careers. Riders like Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) joined the WorldTour as teenagers. It was a little bit of guesswork in terms of training, intervals, power thresholds.”Īlso read: Power-based training – where to beginįroome’s comment underscores the growing trend of younger riders skipping the U23 ranks altogether, and jumping straight from the junior category to the WorldTour. When I started in my late teens, we didn’t know what we were doing. “There is so much more data available and coaches can guide athletes better.
“Power meters have been around for long enough that a lot of the highest-level racers have shared data and made that available,” he said. If you had told me five years ago that a 21-year-old would be winning the Tour de France, I would be ‘no way, it’s just not possible without that depth of racing and experience.’ Pogačar, Bernal, already winning the Tour at 21, 22. “That’s really led to the new generation of riders who are turning pro at 19, 20, 21, and they’re straight to the top. “Youngsters coming into the sport have a structure that didn’t exist beforehand,” Froome told Wiggle. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images) Froome: New pros today are ‘straight to the top’įroome said he sees a through-line from power meters to the rise of today’s über-talented young riders, like Egan Bernal and Tadej Pogačar, both of whom won the Tour in their early 20s. Here are some key excerpts: Chris Froome says Tadej Pogačar has ‘his feet on the ground’ in the Tour de France.
His comments provide an interesting perspective on how a growing array of training and racing tools continue to transform professional racing. Speaking in a YouTube video by Wiggle, Froome shared his views on how technology reshaped and transformed professional racing, and what he sees as the “next big thing.” So much so, he is an investor and advisor to a growing number of firms, including Factor Bikes, Supersapiens glucose-monitoring devices, and Hammerhead navigation systems. Yet Froome continues to work on the vanguard of new technology.
Since his horrific crash in June 2019, the Israel Start-Up Nation rider has not returned to his former best. Now 36, Froome isn’t ripping the legs off anyone, anymore. The four-time Tour de France winner used, among other things, power meters and a host of other cutting-edge coaching and training techniques to dominate grand tour racing for nearly a decade. Get access to everything we publish when youĬhris Froome lived and raced on the front-line evolution of how training technology could transform professional racing.