Not so marginal losses: Chris Froome reveals recent bike set-up was “centimetres” apart from Team Sky days due to “oversight”

For a rider whose greatest successes came while leading a team that prides itself on – and bases most of its PR around – meticulous attention to detail, it may come as a surprise to learn that Chris Froome has apparently spent the last three seasons riding a bike with the wrong set-up, including a saddle height and reach that were “centimetres” apart from his Tour de France-winning position at Team Sky.

Four-time Tour winner Froome, who has often been a vocal critic of Israel-Premier Tech’s equipment and mechanical issues since joining the team in 2021, revealed this week that his omission from this year’s Tour de France provided him with time to reflect on his struggles since his almost career-ending crash at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.

And during that enforced period of reflection, the 38-year-old claims he noticed “very big discrepancies” between his positioning on his Team Sky era Pinarello and his current Factor set-up, which he believes were the source of the lower back pain he’d experience during longer races.

> Check out Chris Froome’s 2024 Factor O2 VAM

“At first I thought it was age starting to catch up with me but then I started questioning my position actually on the bike and then started comparing it,” Froome told cyclingnews this week.

“I had one of my old bikes from Team Sky/Ineos days so I was able to compare the position on the two different bikes. I found that my reach, so from saddle to the handlebars, was over three centimetres of difference between the two bikes, longer on the current bike.

“I took my old bike and went to a specialist and found very big discrepancies between my positions. But now we’ve made some big changes, more than centimetres in terms of saddle height, in terms of the reach, it’s really a lot, we’re not talking millimetres.”

The Giro and Vuelta winner said the startling discrepancy between his past and current bike positions owed simply to an “oversight”, and that he hopes his now rectified setup will pay dividends in 2024.

“It's a positive thing for me. I’ve found it’s given me a lot of added motivation now because it might be part of the puzzle, missing pieces, as to why I haven’t quite found the level that I’ve wanted to get to,” he said.

> Chris Froome "let down" by Tour de France snub, blames "frustrating" equipment issues

Froome’s bike set-up revelation marks the culmination of three years of frustration with Israel-Premier Tech’s choice of equipment. A frequent and vocal critic of disc brakes for many years, in 2021 Froome said that he does not believe that “the technology is quite where it needs to be”, comments supported by his long-time mechanic Gary Blem.

Then, that summer, at the Tour de France, Froome was spotted using Magura’s MT8 SL FM, swapping out the Shimano callipers used by the rest of the team, while earlier this year he again denounced disc brake wheels on an Instagram Reel and insinuated that his Tour du Rwanda woes were down to slow wheel changes (though it appears that Froome’s hardline stance on disc brakes has softened somewhat in recent months).

> “When it works, it is great”: Rim brake devotee Chris Froome finally admits he’s “warmed to disc brakes”

Froome also reiterated his desire to return to the Tour de France next year, after criticising Israel-Premier Tech’s decision to leave him out of the 2023 race.

The 38-year-old’s claim that he had been “let down” by the team over his non-selection and that his only chance to prove himself had been hampered once again by “frustrating” mechanical issues prompted Israel-Premier Tech owner Sylvan Adams to hit out at the grand tour specialist, saying he was not offering “value for money” and was currently riding like a “pedestrian domestique”.

Despite that very public war of words, Froome remains intent on seeing out his contract at the team, which runs until the end of 2025, and achieving some degree of success one last time at the Tour, the site of his only top ten – a third place finish behind Tom Pidcock on Alpe d’Huez in 2022 – since his Dauphiné crash over four years ago.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

“I mean his frustrations are understandable but, yeah, that’s how it is,” Froome said of Adams’ comments, noting that there are “no hard feelings” between him and his team manager.

“I’m contracted for another two years. I signed a five-year contract when I joined. I still feel like there’s more in the legs and I want to go out having given it my all. I’m not going to give up on it. I’ve had much worse said about me.

“If I can get back to the Tour de France and be there when the race gets selective, when there are fewer guys left on the climbs, whether it’s fighting for a stage win again or even trying to ride whatever position on GC again – to me, just to be back in the race, when the race gets selective, that for me would be the dream.”