Chris Froome will not be riding the Vuelta a España 2021 according to recent reports, as he opts for the week-long race the Deutschland Tour before bringing his season to a close at the Il Lombardia one-day Classic, according to Cyclingnews.
Twice a winner of the Vuelta, it was expected that the 36-year-old would be the road captain of Israel Start-Up Nation, especially after making it through the Tour de France. But instead, Froome has decided against the strains of a second Grand Tour after suffering from health issues after the Tour.
Froome told Cyclingnews: "I’m starting to feel myself again, and don’t want to rush into another Grand Tour not feeling fully prepared. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season having resolved the problems that have been hindering me this year,"
The Deutschland Tour is set to take place between August 26 and 29 and has a mix of sprint and hilly stages over the route that sees the race start from the coast in northern Germany before heading down to the hillier central and southern areas with a final stage finishing into Nuremberg.
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Froome is likely be there as a team-mate for whoever leads his squad in Germany, as he still continues to work back from the horror crash that he suffered at the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial recon in 2019 that nearly ended his career.
In a tweet on Tuesday by Froome's neighbour and French journalist, Frédéric Millet, he said that Froome will not be racing the Spanish Grand Tour and also touted the Tour of Britain as a possibility: "When your neighbour Chris Froome catches up with you on the golden corniche of the Estérel, the pulsations take off: 170 for me and 110 for him ... The difference in "engine" between a champion and a cyclo! Not Vuelta, but Tour of Germany and GB on his program."
If Froome did race in the UK it would be the first since May of 2019 where he was in the Tour de Yorkshire lineup that debuted the new Team Ineos kits.
Froome has had a tough first season with his new team of Israel Start-Up Nation with no real signs of improvement from the British rider as he still aims to win a record-equalling fifth Tour de France.
His best result all season came in his first race for the team at the UAE Tour where he finished 22nd on stage four. Away from that, he has rarely got inside the top 40 of any race, however, he has been working hard for his team-mates such as Michael Woods, Dan Martin, and Ben Hermans.
Along with that, he pulled off eighth place in the mountain standings at the Tour of the Alps thanks to a stint in a breakaway.
