Chris Froome misses out on Tour de France selection

Chris Froome will not race the Tour de France this year after he missed out on selection by his team Israel-Premier Tech. 

The four-time champion, now 39 years old, was also absent from the race in 2023, and last competed in the 2022 edition. 

It was thought that Froome would be part of the team this year after he competed at the recent Critérium du Dauphiné, one of the key precursors to the Tour de France. 

Instead, Israel-Premier Tech will go to the Grand Tour with Pascal Ackermann, Guillaume Boivin, Jakob Fuglsang, Derek Gee, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Jake Stewart and Stevie Williams. 

"It was one of the toughest team selections we ever had to make, which speaks of the depth of out rider roster," said team owner Sylvan Adams in a statement.

"Ultimately, our performance team was unanimous in making these selections, knowing we wanted a team geared towards hunting for individual stages, rather than a high placing on GC."

Speaking to Eurosport in April this year, Froome said he would "love to get back to the Tour de France", where he hoped to target a stage win. 

"[It] would be for me an amazing way to end my career with at least a few more battles in the mountains," the Brit said. 

"A fifth Tour de France for me is always there as a dream, but I think I've come to the reality now that returning to that level of really fighting for victory at the Tour de France is certainly going to be very, very difficult.

"For me right now, I would just love to get back to the Tour de France. Even if I'm there fighting in the mountains, potentially for another stage win, that would be amazing." 

At the Tour de France last year, Israel-Premier Tech owner Adams told Cycling Weekly that signing Froome on a multi-million euro salary was "absolutely not" value for money. 

"We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team and he's not even here so that cannot be considered value for money," Adams explained. 

Froome is widely considered to be the best Grand Tour rider of his generation, having won four Tours de France, two Vueltas a España and a Giro d'Italia. 

The team chosen to represent Israel-Premier Tech this July counts four debutants: Ackermann, Gee, Stewart and Williams. 

"It's something I dreamt of as a kid growing up," said La Flèche Wallonne winner Williams. "This has already been a wonderful year for me so far with some nice victories. Now, I'm eager to target some stages over the next month and try to tick off a major goal for myself and for the team." 

Michael Woods, stage winner on the Puy de Dôme last year, also missed out on selection.