Crunching The Numbers

How does Chris Froome compare with cycling’s greats after his most successful season yet?

- Peter Cossins

There was a neat symmetry to the press conferences that bookended  Chris Froome’s victory in the Vuelta a España. In the dusty, sun-baked arena of  Nîmes’ amphitheatre, Froome was asked to comment on Eddy Merckx’s assertion that the Briton could not be considered one of the greatest riders of all time because he has never been in the hunt for a one-day Classic, let alone triumphed in one of them. Three weeks later, having just clinched the title on the summit of the Alto de l’Angliru, Froome was asked to respond to Merckx’s further assertion that he is not an exceptional rider.

If there is one thing that we do know about the Sky leader, it is that he is never likely to take the bait when offered the chance to bite back at one of the sport’s legends. He is too polite, too aware that there is nothing to be gained from stoking a spat with cycling’s greatest-ever rider. As he always does, Froome dead-batted the polemic.

“Of course, everyone has their own opinion, but for me this is as good as it gets,” he said. “In the modern era of cycling, to win two Grand Tours back-to-back is difficult. There’s a reason that the Tour-Vuelta double hasn’t been done before. I couldn’t be happier.”

In fairness to Merckx, in his interview with Het Laatste Nieuws in which he criticised Froome’s failure to secure a single victory prior to this year’s Tour and asserted that he doesn’t appreciate the Briton’s focus on the Grand Tours to the complete exclusion of any interest at all in the Classics, the legendary Belgian did acknowledge that cycling is not the same now as it was in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he was in his pomp.