Chris Froome remains optimistic in his Giro d’Italia quest despite losing more time again on an uphill finish in central Italy.
Froome slid behind on the short and steep finish to Osimo in Marche. Fellow Brit Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) won for a second time in the pink jersey, while Froome drifted in 40 seconds later.
“We saw with Esteban Chaves how quickly things can change for the general classification riders, so we just have to keep plugging away and keep trying to do everything we can,” Froome said.
>>> Five talking points from stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia
“The team is motivated and I’m motivated. We are going to do as much as we can.”
With the loss, Froome slid back two spots to 12th overall at 3-20 minutes behind Yates. He has lost time steadily since his crash on day one while training for the time trial in Jerusalem.
Blue Kinesio tape runs down Froome right leg. Where there is no tape, scabs mark his leg and his arm.
“I’m not going to lie, that crash took a lot out of me. I have lot of pain down my right hand side, which in this game if you are not at your absolute best you can’t hide, or you can only hide for so long, which we’ve seen,” Froome continued.
Froome fights to save as much time as possible on the final climb of stage 11 of the 2018 Giro d’Italia (Sunada)
“But I feel that I’ve been progressing though the race, still just chipping’ away and hoping to do the best I can.”
Froome said he feels like his normal self, the one that dominated the last few editions of the Tour de France.
“I’m getting there, day by day,” he explained.
“I’m not 100 per cent obviously after all the issues I’ve had on the right, but I’m getting there and I’m optimistic I’m going to come right. There’s still some really hard stages to come.”
Froome came into the season with a double objective of winning the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, something that has not been done since 1998. Some suggested that he would drop out of what has been a difficult Giro early to give himself recover time and extra preparation time for a fifth Tour title.
“No, no,” Froome said when asked if he is thinking about quitting. “I’m going to keep fighting.
“It’s good to get this racing in the legs. I haven’t done much this year, so it’s good to get the racing in. I certainly haven’t given up hope.”
