Team Cystic Fibrosis club rider Alex Jones tells Cycling Weekly about his day out riding with Team Sky's defending Tour de France champion Chris Froome
“I caught up with a couple of guys I knew afterwards, and they were saying: ‘it's like a competition prize, I can’t believe you!'” says Alex Jones. “But I don’t think I’ve rubbed it in people’s faces too much.”
But rather than stand by and take a picture for the album he decided to do something a bit different.
“I said I’d nip down 400-500 yards and jump on and see if they’d mind me riding along with them and see if I can get some pictures for the team website,” Jones adds. “As it turned out they came up, Chris was about 20 or 30 yards in front of the other riders.
"I jumped on and said: ‘Hi Chris, do you mind if I ride alongside you?’ And he said: ‘that’s fine.’
“I asked him whether he was going to stop at the top [of the climb] and he said: ‘no, I’m carrying on.’ So I said: ‘do you mind if I ride with you,’ and he said: ‘no, no that’s fine.’”
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Alex Jones has a chat with Chris Froome on the way up Holme Moss
(Image credit: David Robertson)
Jones, a local rider and occasional road racer and time triallist with Team Cystic Fibrosis, recalls descending at 45mph with his handlebars just six inches from the Tour winner’s, thinking ‘just hold your line, you can’t bring a Tour de France champion off his bike, his brand new [Pinarello] F8.’
As they continued along the undulating road to Sheffield they chatted scenery, tactics and team selection for the Tour’s upcoming visit to Yorkshire. It’s becoming cliché, but can you imagine doing the same with Wayne Rooney on the turf at Wembley Stadium before he heads off to the football World Cup? Thought not.
“I pointed out that they’re going to be going down the Manchester road [from Holme Moss] very fast and there’s a very tight right turn to Midhopestones, which then narrows. I said: ‘you’re going to want to be near the front there because I think it’s going to start to kick off there.’
"I said: ‘this is where people are going to attack and various bits and bobs,’ and he said: ‘thanks for the info, I’ll look out for it.’”
Chris Froome and Team Sky descend Buttertubs during a recce of 2014 Tour de France stage one
(Image credit: Andy Jones)
“I managed to get about halfway up Woodhead with them before it got a bit too grippy and I bade them farewell and rode the rest of the way home with a grin as wide as the Cheshire cat’s on my face,” Jones adds.
“Chris Froome was an absolute legend. He didn’t have to say: ‘yeah ride along,’ he didn’t have to sit and talk to me all the way down. So full marks for PR and what have you, in my book.
“Maybe the team kit made him think that I wasn’t a total numpty and I wouldn’t take him off.”
