Chris Froome is ready to ‘give it everything he’s got’ as he enters the final week of the Giro d’Italia aiming to make up for lost time.
Froome trails race leader Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) by 4’52” after losing time to his compatriot on a mountainous stage 15, but is adamant that there is still an opportunity to make ground up on the race favourites, starting with the individual time trial on stage 16.
The 33 year old, who is currently seventh overall, believes Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin is the man to beat in Tuesday’s 34.2 kilometre test, but Froome is optimistic.
“If I gain anything on Tom Dumoulin I’ll be very happy. He’s the world champion time triallist, I don’t expect to gain anything on him tomorrow, but let’s see.
“I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and I’m certainly not going to expect anything [to be easy] for the rest of this Giro.
“It’s been a brutal race, but it’s also been a beautiful race. This is bike racing at its best and it’s what people want to see. Real edge-of-the-seat stuff and unpredictable racing too.
“[The gap] is big, especially the way Simon [Yates] has been riding, he hasn’t shown one moment of weakness so far and only seems to be getting stronger.
“I’m still going to focus on the GC, I’m not going to give up. I think it’s quite clear, Zoncolan was going to be the most iconic climb of the Giro, I’d done the recon and I put absolutely everything I had on that climb.
“I went super deep on Zoncolan, it was such an amazing experience and it’s [a decision] I don’t regret.
“I don’t regret putting everything on the line that day, it was an incredible experience. The atmosphere on the climb, the thousands of people up there
“And just taking a step back, to eight years ago when I first rode Zoncolan where I was almost reliant on the public giving me a push every 20 metres just to get up there, and then to come back here eight years later and win is a moment that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”
