“And it’s not just the training – it’s living the right way. The mental discipline is just as hard as the physical work. I do the training and I enjoy it. That’s the easy part.
“It’s when you’re at home and you’re starving hungry and you want to pig out but can’t, when tea is quinoa rather than the massive pizza you’d really like. You go out with your partner and she will have a glass of wine or a dessert, or she orders a steak and you have to settle for a piece of steamed fish. Chris lives like that throughout the year.”
Wiggins was a great stylist on his bike, smooth on the pedals, a track rider’s instinctive handling skills. Froome is all elbows and effort, grimacing up mountains, descending like the last few frames before an almighty pile-up.
If that has kept the aesthetes cool towards him, the struggling amateurs can understand both the determination and the improvement it has brought. Wiggins could be wonderful company for his team-mates, but he could also be moody and introverted. Froome has grown into the role of team alpha male, learning from his predecessor, managing all the messy stuff that comes with the leader’s jersey.
“Being in yellow takes at least half an hour away from your recovery every day,” says Thomas, who spent four days on top of the GC standings this month.
“You finish the stage, you try to do your warm-down, then it’s on to the podium, and that’s the good bit. Then you have to do TV and radio, and you get asked the same two questions 15 times, which gets quite monotonous when you’re already so tired.
“You then speak to the print media, you go into another press conference, and then doping control. If you can get the job done in doping control you can be in and out in 10 minutes. If it’s been a hot day and you’re dehydrated, you can be in there for an hour. All the other guys will be straight onto the team bus to do their warm-down, get some food down them and put their feet up.
“You get booed a lot. And it can be intimidating on those mountain roads. It’s not like football, when the spectators can abuse you but not actually touch you. On those big climbs on the open roads, you never know. They could hit you; riders in our team have been punched before. It’s another challenge.”
