Five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx has revealed that he expects Chris Froome to win a third Tour title next summer, saying the Briton “hasn’t really got any rivals”.
In the course of an interview with L’Équipe at his home in Meise on the outskirts of Brussels, Merckx was asked if he expected Froome to claim the yellow jersey in Paris next July. “Of course he’s going to win it again,” the Belgian declared. “If it’s not him, then who else?”
Merckx added: “It won’t be Quintana who will worry him, because he’s too limited in time trials. Quintana climbs well, but he’s a bit weighed down, too cautious. Waiting for the penultimate day and Alpe d’Huez [in this year’s Tour] to attack Froome revealed a lack of calibre.
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“As for the others: Nibali won’t be there, Contador will be another year older, Aru I don’t really know… No, on paper, Froome hasn’t really got any rivals.”
On the question of Froome’s popularity and the attacks and insults the Sky leader received during this summer’s Tour, Merckx reflected on the threats and assault he was on the end of when he was dominating the Tour in the early 1970s. “Froome had urine thrown at him, which even I don’t think I was subjected to. But I experienced something a lot worse, in the shape of the punch I received from a spectator on the climb of the Puy de Dôme,” he said.
Asked if he thought Froome had been unjustly treated by the press and public, Merckx responded: “The public have always been excessive, and are more so today with the competition between the different media, the increasing amount of information, the spread of rumours that aren’t always verified.
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