Just days before the start of the Critérium du Dauphiné, the French cycling race in early June, crisis befell the Israeli team – known as Israel Start-Up Nation. During the final training session, Chris Froome lost control and fell off his bike. It immediately brought back memories from a similar incident he had in 2019, when he crashed into a wall. The resulting broken hip forced him to drop out from the race and start a lengthy recovery period.
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But in this latest training accident, nothing major happened. It was "just a few scratches," according to Omer Goldstein, the Israeli road race champion who trained alongside Froome in Tenerife for several weeks as part of the effort to build the cyclists' stamina for the Tour de France. Froome is not expected to win a fifth edition of the French race, and you won't see him celebrating with champagne in the Champs-Élysées. Nevertheless, he will do his best, and even if he wins a stage, it will be an impressive comeback and an inspiration.
35 hours a week
"The training camp was very interesting. I saw up close how he was getting ready for the race. I always wanted to see such a thing: What you drink, what you eat, what training sessions you do in such a setting. This was a very positive experience and I learned a lot from him," Goldstein said. "Every day we would go out on a ride. It would turn out to be some 35 weekly hours – about 4 or 5 hours a day. We would finish the day with a climb of 4 km (2.5 miles), because Tenerife has almost no plains. We slept at an altitude of 2,100 meters (1.3 miles) and then went down to sea level, where the body would be less shocked by a high-altitude training, so you can train harder. At the end of the ride, we would go up to the hotel area and spend the night there."
Q: What did you learn about him?
"Sometimes I would be shocked by his actions. For example, we could be training for 6 hours and logging 150 km (93 miles), but then when we got back to the hotel he would continue with training for another hour. He would continue past 4 p.m. – he is a true training freak. Even before each training session, we would carry out strength training of at least 30 minutes each day. He is truly a league of his own. He has strict dieting, weighing his intake."
Q: How much did he guard his privacy?
"He is a private man. He doesn't share his professional knowledge with anyone in any particular detail, but I can tell you that when he trains he goes by the book, as if he was some cycling scientist on wheels. He calculates everything. He has an ability to tolerate more than anything I have ever seen. He has improved his fitness level in the camp in such a stunning way. I would normally match his pace in the first part of the day, but then he would just go farther and farther away."
Q: What do you mean when you say a "scientist on wheels"?
"In this field, there is a lot of science, and he pays attention to every detail, down to what screw you would be using and how much you weigh while riding the bike. He is crazy. With the media pressure on him, he still wakes up every morning and works his a** off. He believes that he will make a comeback. I still remember his breathing when going uphill. He is a true fighter."
Q: How successful is he in tuning out the pressure around him?
"He is always stressed out and fears what people might write on him because people always want to get him on the minutia. Becoming a Froome is a long process; he did not become a star overnight. People started following him because he started accumulating accomplishments and today he is mature enough to deal with it and able to deliver on this status on the track. People in France tried to make him fail in the tour so that he won't be able to celebrate in their country. He has an amazing mental resilience when it comes to media interviews and in his ability to keep excelling the following day. And yes, I believe that a star like him can grow in Israel."
"He can deliver"
Froome and Goldstein left for the first training camp together in April, and now they have already completed a second one. "For him, it was very easy to adapt to the altitude and rhythm, but I was primarily busy catching up and trying to stretch my old limits," Goldstein said. "I felt that this worked as it should. I saw a significant improvement in our competence in those high-altitude camps, but now it is crunch time."
Q: Are you ready to be a domestique for someone who is a four-time champion of the Tour de France?
"At the end of the day, this is my job. I try to keep things in perspective. True, it's Chris Froome we are talking about, but I might as well have been working for Dan Martin, Michael Woods, or any other cyclists that our managers choose."
Q: So you don't feel any excitement?
"The training camp gave me a great deal of self-esteem because I managed to reach as far away as my dreams. Of course, there is still room for improvement but I am happy with where I am, this is a good feeling. It definitely increased my faith that I would be able to figure things out – I can deliver the goods. This is not beyond reach. We have been given the tools and conditions and I can ultimately do it."
After completing the 8 stages of the Dauphine, Goldstein will compete in the Israeli National Time Trial Championships and in the Israeli National Road Race later this month.
"I have to win the championship so that I can save the special vest and arrive with it to the Tour de France," he summed things up.
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