Children at Chris Froome’s old school in South Africa have been celebrating his victory at the Tour de France by wearing special yellow T-shirts.
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Froome has not competed in the United Kingdom since the Grand Depart of the 2014 Tour de France, when the first three stages were held in England.
Chris Froome has won a career third and Sky’s fourth Tour de France title all within five years, leading others to contemplate the reasons behind the determined success on the biggest stage.
Froome’s victory was arguably the easiest of his three so far, after the riders who had been expected to push him the hardest all fell out of contention early as a result of either injury, illness, poor form or bad luck.
The Mont Ventoux stage provided the abiding image of this Tour de France – but not one that Froome or the organisers could ever have envisaged.
Two days before reaching the Champs Elysees, Froome endured another crash during a chaotic and spectacular Alpine stage in stormy and wet weather.
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Four years ago, Mark Cavendish was favourite to win Team GB’s first medal at London 2012, but he was the victim of a carve-up and the race was won by Kazakhstan’s convicted doper Alexander Vinokourov.
Despite the fact that Andre Greipel won the final sprint finish, Froome’s incredible performance throughout the race meant that he was the overall victor, and could focus on the feeling of earning his third Tour crown.
“You see the riders behind him and I don’t know who can beat him next year”.
Brailsford revealed Mikel Landa is also pencilled in for Team Sky’s line-up, but would not be drawn on whether the Spaniard would support Froome or be a joint leader.
Only four riders have more Tour wins – with five each – than Froome: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
“Being in the position that I’m in now, I’m understanding how tough it is to win a race like the Tour de France”.
“I definitely feel I’ve matured a lot as a bike rider over the past couple of seasons”, he said.
“It’s more of a gamble”, said Froome.
“I’ve raced for three weeks for that”, Greipel said. “Just in general it’s been a great race and we look forward to some more”.
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He added: “You’re going the through the motions of racing and that Tour in particular I got stronger in that third week and won that last time trial”. Thomas then deterred attacks from Froome’s rivals by setting a stiff pace on the climb up the Col de Joux Plane on Stage 20 – and then led Froome down the treacherous descent into Morzine in pouring rain.
