Chris Froome “absolutely not value for money”, says Israel-Premier Tech co-owner

On the same day Chris Froome said he felt “let down” after being left out of Israel-Premier Tech’s Tour de France line-up, citing “frustrating” mechanical issues as the reasons behind his anonymous 2023 results, the squad’s co-owner Sylvan Adams has claimed that the four-time Tour winner has not represented “value for money” since joining the team in 2021.

Speaking to the Radio Cycling podcast, Adams also dismissed the notion that Froome’s current lacklustre form has anything to do with the injuries he sustained in a horrific career-threatening crash at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné, and cast doubt on his future with Israel-Premier Tech, where, Adams claimed, he may be resigned to the role of a “pedestrian domestique” if he decides to stay with the team.

Since joining Israel-Premier Tech from the Ineos Grenadiers in 2021, ostensibly as a grand tour contender, Froome has struggled to replicate the stage race-winning form he demonstrated throughout the 2010s following his breakthrough ride at the 2011 Vuelta a España. His third-place finish on Alpe d’Huez at last year’s Tour, behind winner Tom Pidcock, remarkably remains the only top ten he’s recorded in the team’s colours.

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

Asked if the 38-year-old represented value for money on his substantial salary – reported to be around €5 million a year – Israeli-Canadian billionaire Adams said: “Absolutely not. How could we say we had value for money? We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team, and he’s not even here. So that cannot be considered value for money.

“This is not a PR exercise. Chris isn’t a symbol, he isn’t a PR tool, he’s supposed to be our leader at the Tour de France and he’s not even here, so no, I couldn’t say he’s value for money, no.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Adams’ comments came just hours after the seven-time grand tour winner explained on his YouTube channel that his omission from Israel-Premier Tech’s eight-man Tour de France squad was a “pretty big disappointment, a pretty big letdown”.

In a video titled ‘I was ready for the Tour’, Froome claimed that “I really felt as if I was on track, as if physically I was ready and hit all my goals in terms of reaching race weight”. He also doubled down on his assertion that his poor pre-Tour form – which saw him finish 55th at the CIC-Mont Ventoux race before an equally underwhelming 40th place at La Route d’Occitanie – was the result of a plethora of mechanical issues.

> "Same Chris, it’s the darn bike holding me back!": Fans react to Chris Froome’s "equipment" blame-game

However, Adams argued that Froome failed to “earn his spot” on Israel-Premier Tech’s Tour squad, a decision that has been vindicated in recent days by Michael Woods’ impressive win on the Puy de Dôme, along with Krists Neilands’ battling performance in the breakaway to Issoire.

“I am very respectful towards Chris. He is a four-time Tour winner, and I treat him with the same deference,” Adams said. “I respect his past accomplishments, but if you want to be on this year’s Tour team or next year’s Tour team, we don’t care what you did seven years ago, we care about what you have done this year and you need to earn your spot.

“We gave him opportunities to ride in the Tour, like last year for example, when he hadn’t really earned his spot, on the basis that Chris gets better in a three-week race.”

He continued: “Which guy here on this team should we have left at home in order to give Chris a spot he didn’t earn? Because I can’t answer that question. These guys earned their spots and I feel good about the team we brought here. Chris I know was disappointed, but he understood the decision.

“But of course he was disappointed, because in his heart he believed he could come here and perform eventually. But not as a GC guy – and really we brought him as a GC guy, we didn’t sign him to be a stage hunter – and we all recognise, including Chris, he is not ready to compete for a GC podium, forget about winning, or even close, so if he wants to come here and hunt for stages he has got to displace one of these guys here. And frankly he didn’t earn that spot.”

Froome on his way to third on Alpe d’Huez at last year’s Tour (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

When asked if there was any doubt over his signing of Froome in late 2020, just over a year and a half after his crash at the Dauphiné, Adams said: “I knew there was risk involved because of the severity of his injuries and because he got two years older! We had a double risk of the severity of his injuries and his advancing age.

“Chris always felt he was a young rider, because he hasn’t done much racing. He started late, he was [mostly] racing Grand Tours and his calendar was quite limited. And he believed in himself as a youngish rider.”

He added: “With respect to his injuries, we were really innovative with bringing him back. We sent him to the Red Bull rehab centre in Los Angeles, he worked with amazing specialists to rebalance his legs.

“Chris’ performances now have nothing to do with his injuries in my observation. I don't think Chris is using that as an excuse anymore. We took a risk, but we were signing, as I said, the best Grand Tour rider of this generation, and I was willing to take the risk as we were a little team and overnight we were hoping to become contenders here at the Tour.

“It did raise our profile, but this isn’t a PR exercise. My idea was, ‘wow, we’re going to have somebody to be relevant for the GC at the Tour de France’ and that hasn’t happened.”

> Froome out of hospital and back at home after horrific crash which ruined Tour hopes

Responding to speculation that Froome’s demotion to lower-tier races – he is set to miss out on this year’s Vuelta, and will instead ride the Czech Tour and Deutschland Tour – will prompt the 38-year-old to retire at the end of this year, Adams said: “Honestly I couldn’t say. He’s a very positive person, he’s very determined. He trains like a Trojan, there’s no harder working person in this sport than Chris Froome.

“But his results haven’t been there. I can’t say what he’s thinking right now, and it’s a long way from now until the end of the season. He’s going to the Czech Tour – if he started to show some results, I guess he’d be encouraged.

“If he just doesn’t produce results in lower-tier races, would he really want to continue to be a pedestrian domestique on this team? Again, that’s up to Chris.”

> Chris Froome's mechanic agrees with his boss: "I'm not a huge fan of disc brakes"

While those comments, and Froome’s recent video, may indicate that the relationship between team owner and big-money rider is rapidly deteriorating, Adams nevertheless stressed that he has committed to allowing the former Giro d’Italia winner to retire at Israel-Premier Tech on his own terms.

“He has my personal commitment that he will retire as a member of Israel-Premier Tech,” Adams said. “Chris expressed, and I think he said this publicly, an interest in possibly riding until the age of 40, which would imply another two years after this year.

“The commitment I made to Chris was that he will retire on our team, so when he decides – again, with a ceiling of age 40 as those were the parameters we discussed – he wants to hang it up, it’ll be on his terms and that’s the personal commitment I made to Chris. He doesn’t have a five-year contract exactly. But it can go up to five years if Chris so decides.

“Chris is the greatest grand tour champion of this generation. He deserves our respect.”

However, Froome’s absence from all three grand tours this year, and his stated plans to ride the 2024 Tour de France, indicate that the door could well be open for an early departure from Israel-Premier Tech for the British rider, who still believes he has “a lot more to give and a lot more to show” on the sport’s biggest stage.