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Is it still possible to retain the Tour de France title?

Chris Froome.(Source: Team Sky)
Roar Guru
27th October, 2015
7

Here’s a statistic for you: excluding a certain American, no one has retained their Tour de France title since 1995, when Miguel Indurain won his fifth and last Tour in a row.

This is a remarkable statistic, some of the greatest riders of the recent era haven’t been able to hold on to their title the year after winning it.

This of course includes the likes of Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, and Cadel Evans. Not to mention the drug-fuelled stars of the nineties, where Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani both failed to retain.

The question that immediately and obviously springs up is why? Why have some of the best cyclists of the last two decades failed? Well, upon closer inspection, a host of different reasons present themselves.

In 2012, we witnessed the painful sight of Evans struggling up a mountain in chase of that year’s runaway winner Bradley Wiggins. It was only later that we found out he was suffering from a virus.

The curse of illness and injury is a painful way of losing your title, particularly when you know you stood a good chance of retaining said title. Evans was struck down with a virus in 2012, and two years later Froome would find himself falling on the tarmac of northern France, all but ending his hopes of victory that year.

Also a painful reason to lose is that of being beaten, or usurped as it were, by your own teammate. It happened to Bjarne Riis in 1997, when a young Ullrich climbed his way out of the Dane’s shadow, and to Wiggins in 2013.

Wiggins of course didn’t enter the 2013 race through injury, but the message coming out of the Sky team before the race was that Froome was the designated leader. He had been usurped before the race had even begun.

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Then there’s the age old cycling conundrum – drugs. Cheating cost Contador both attempts at retaining his title. In 2008, his Astana team were refused a place at the Tour de France as a result of doping scandals in the team during the 2007 race and its links to the Operation Puerto scandal, meaning the Spaniard was unable to defend his 2007 title.

Then in 2010, he actually did successfully defend his 2009 Tour de France title, before being stripped of it after a positive test for clenbuterol, making Andy Schleck the winner of the race.

Although drugs will most likely not feature in his mindset, Froome will be well aware of the precedent that has been set over the last two decades as he looks to defend his title in 2016.

He himself knows the pitfalls of being a defending champion, having crashed out with number one on his back in 2014. Next year though presents a very good opportunity for the Brit to retain his title.

There will be no cobbles, the first week looks to be relatively calm in comparison with previous years, and there are more time trial kilometres in 2016, favouring him over his nearest likely rival Nairo Quintana.

If he can avoid all the pitfalls, Froome has the best chance in years to defend his title, and I think he’ll do it.

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