CHRIS FROOME
Date of birth: 20/05/1985
Team: Sky
Previous teams: Barloworld (2008-2009); Konica Minolta (2007)
Chris Froome career profile
Born in Kenya, Froome moved to South Africa as an adolescent where he took up mountain biking and then road racing. Froome turned professional in 2007 with the Konica Minolta team.
Introduced to the Barloworld team by Robbie Hunter, Froome soon swapped his Kenyan licence for a British one at the start of the 2008 season. Froome was born a Briton, but competed for Kenya (as that was where was born).
Impressing with strong performances at the Giro del Capo and the Giro dell'Appennino, Froome was awarded with a ride in the Tour de France in only his second year as a professional. He almost did not make it to Paris, after team-mate Moises Dueñas' positive test for EPO, but the team soldiered on with Froome taking 84th overall after strong performances in the mountains.
Froome was set to ride for Great Britain at the Olympics but due to an administrative error from the Kenyan authorities, he was prevented from doing so. After a largely disappointing year with Barloworld, in which he did not race as much as he would have liked, Froome joined the British-backed Sky team for 2010.
After an early-season blighted by illness, Froome made his mark on the 2011 Vuelta a Espana riding alongside Bradley Wiggins in Sky's assault on the overall classification. He ended up in the red leader's jersey after placing second behind Tony Martin in the stage 10 individual time trial.
Athough he lost the 2011 Vuelta lead to team-mate Bradley Wiggins the following day, Froome continued to ride strongly in the mountains. Positioned just 22 seconds adrift of leader Juan Jose Cobo before stage 17 of the race, Froome set out to launch a last ditch, do-or-die bid for the race lead in the final, steep kilometre on Peña Cabarga. The resulting duel was one of the most spectacular stage finishes the race has seen in recent years. He did not overthrow Cobo, but Froome won the stage and went on to finish second overall, establishing himself as a bona fide grand tour contender.
Froome then took a stage of the Tour de France in 2012 after a dominant display by Team Sky up the steep incline of La Planche des Belles Filles on stage seven, and finished the race in second place overall - a result only bettered by British team-mate Bradley Wiggins' overall win.
In the London 2012 Olympic Games, Froome won a bronze medal in the time trial event behind Wiggins and Tony Martin, confirming his position as one of the world's strongest riders against the clock.
Froome had his first opportunity to lead Sky at a Grand Tour at the 2012 Vuelta. Suffering from fatigue after the Tour and Olympics, Froome struggled in the high mountains but still managed to place fourth behind winner Alberto Contador.
Froome's 2013 campaign started well, with a convincing overall win in the Tour of Oman in February against fellow Grand Tour contenders Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans and Joaquim Rodriguez. He followed this with overall wins in Criterium International and Tour de Romandie.
Having achieved so much in the run-in to the 2013 Tour de France, Froome was ranked favourite for the win. He didn't disappoint, winning stages eight, 15 and 17, and placing second in the first individual time trial to win the race overall - the second consecutive Tour won by a British rider after Wiggins in 2012.
Froome crashed out of the 2014 Tour de France on stage five, landing heavily after nursing injuries from another crash the previous day.
In 2015, Froome became the first British rider to win two editions of the Tour, and the first to win both the overall and mountain classification, establishing himself as the nation's most successful Grand Tour racer in history.
Chris Froome results
2016
Herald Sun Tour; stage four
Herald Sun Tour; mountains classification
Herald Sun Tour; overall
Criterium du Dauphine; stage five
Criterium du Dauphine; overall
Tour de France; stage eight
Tour de France; stage 18 ITT
Tour de France; overall
Vuelta a Espana; stage 11
2015
Ruta del Sol; stage four
Ruta del Sol; overall
Critérium du Dauphiné; stage seven
Critérium du Dauphiné; stage eight
Critérium du Dauphiné; overall
Tour de France; stage 10
Tour de France; overall
Tour de France; mountains classification
2014
Tour of Oman; stage five
Tour of Oman; overall
Tour de Romandie; stage five ITT
Tour de Romandie; overall
Criterium du Dauphine; stage one ITT
Criterium du Dauphine; stage two
Criterium du Dauphine; points classification
2013
Tour of Oman; stage five
Tour of Oman; overall
Tour of Oman; points classification
Tirreno-Adriatico; stage four
Criterium International; stage three
Criterium International; overall
Tour de Romandie; prologue ITT
Tour de Romandie; overall
Criterium du Dauphine; stage five
Criterium du Dauphine; overall
Tour de France; stage eight
Tour de France; stage 15
Tour de France; stage 17 (ITT)
Tour de France; overall
2012
Tour de France; stage seven
Olympic time trial; bronze
2011
Vuelta a Espana; stage 17
2009
Cape Argus Giro del Capo Challenge two
2007
Tour of Japan; stage six
Giro delle Regione (under 23s); stage five
2006
Tour of Mauritius; stage two
Tour of Mauritius; stage three
2005
Tour of Mauritius; stage two
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