'I’m confident the rehab process is behind me now': Chris Froome says he's back to full fitness after nearly two years
The seven-time Grand Tour winner has been putting in the hard yards in California for several months now

Chris Froome says he is ready to return to competition again now that he is confident he doesn't need any more rehabilitation, following almost two years of hard work since his career-threatening crash in a warm up ride at the Critérium du Dauphiné 2019.
Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation) has been training hard at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre in Santa Monica, California, as well as out on the roads of the US state in a strict rehabilitation schedule.
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In a piece by Red Bull, Froome spoke about how he didn't want to retire because of the crash: "That wasn’t the way I wanted to end my career, on an accident, on a low like that.
"I want to be able to stop my career on my own terms and I still felt I had a lot more to give."
Having missed the mark in a difficult first year back from injury, Froome has moved on to a new challenge by leaving the supposed safety of his team of 11 years, Ineos Grenadiers, to join up-and-coming team Israel Start-Up Nation for the 2021 season.
After discovering he had a deficiency of about 20 per cent in the right quad, scans also revealed that screws that were put in during surgery were piercing through a bone, possibly grating his quad while on the bike.
It was Froome's now-former team-mate who stepped in to help, Froome revealed: "Cameron Wurf, an ex-team-mate of mine and good friend over at Ineos introduced me to Per [Lundstam, Director of Athlete Performance for Red Bull] over here in Santa Monica."
This was when Froome was given his rehab schedule where he would be doing four sessions every week, until more recently when he changed to two sessions and more time out on the bike.
The four-time Tour de France winner says he is now around where he was before: "I can finally say that I’m confident the rehab process is behind me now.
"It’s always going to be a weakness I’m going to have to work on until the end of my career. But in terms of the figures I’m seeing on the bike, I’ve got to the same if not even better left-right balance than I was prior to the crash. That’s extremely encouraging."
Froome is hoping to level the all-time record for most Tour de France victories of five as he targets victory in this year's race.
His schedule to that goal looks very similar to when he was at Ineos. He is set to start his season at the UAE Tour having originally been scheduled to debut at the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina, before it was cancelled due to Covid-19.
After the UAE Tour, Froome is due to race the Volta a Catalunya followed by the Critérium du Dauphiné as the last step before fighting for yellow. It is not yet known if any other races will be included in the lead-up.
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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