Chris Froome has completed the Vuelta a Espana’s difficult transitions stages in good shape and ready for the upcoming mountains, but the Team Sky rider has lost a valuable team-mate after Poland’s Michael Kwiatkowski quit with back pains, possibly provoked by a saddle sore.
"It’s a big blow, he’s a big part of the team, he’s got a lot of horsepower and was in great shape, so it’s a real shame us to lose him,” Froome told a small gorup of reporters after stage 7.
“It’s definitely going to have an effect, but hopefully we’ve got enough strength throughout the team to get the job done. We’ll have to see how the next few days go.”
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As for the Camperona climb and whether it was too hard a summit finish too soon, Froome argued, “That’s the nature of the Vuelta, every year it’s the same. We did that climb back in 2014. It’s a tough, tough finish. It’s going to be about getting there hopefully in a good position, and seeing how my legs feel.”
Froome is currently third overall, 32 seconds behind race leader Darwin Atapuma (BMC Racing) and 24 seconds behind current runner-up Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
As for the three big upcomng stages, Froome argued, “I’m where I need to be, I think, but the truth will come out once I hit the climbs. So far, I’m feeling good, I think I’ve had a pretty good start to the race, and I’m looking forward to getting to the business side of it. We’ve had a few transition stages that have been stressful and difficult to get through and it’ll be good to get into the racing side of it again.”
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