Star Metro - Desire key to Pogacar dominance, says former Tour king Froome

The 41-year-old Briton is returning to the Tour, which begins on Saturday with a team time-trial around Barcelona, for the first time since retiring as a rider last year.

He knows as much as anyone how tough it is to keep returning to the Grande Boucle as the favourite.

But Froome did not win his first Tour until he was 28, whereas 27-year-old Pogacar has already won it four times.

If he wins again this year, he will equal the record of five Tour triumphs.

"Just looking at Tadej, he's a lot younger than I was when I was trying to go for my potential number five," Froome told AFP in an exclusive interview in Barcelona.

"He's had an amazing season so far this year and it's going to be hard to see anything stopping him at this rate.

"If he's able to stay on his bike, if he can stay out of trouble, just the way he's moving this year, it looks as if he's got this one in the bag."

Froome was a seven-time Grand Tour winner, adding the Giro d'Italia in 2018 and the Vuelta a Espana in 2011 and 2017 to his impressive achievements.

His 2011 Vuelta success was the first by a Briton in a Grand Tour, and he was also the first British rider to win the Giro.

He was still at the top of his game when in June 2019 he suffered a horrific crash on a training ride during the Criterium du Dauphine stage race, after which he never again rediscovered his old form.

"I don't think you can ever count your chickens in this sport because it can change in the blink of an eye, as I found out," said Froome.

"Potentially, he (Pogacar) could keep going for another five years, but has he got the desire, the drive to do that? I don't know.

"At what point for him would enough be enough? He's definitely going to have to take it one day at a time during the Tour because cycling is just one of those sports that can change so quickly."

- 'Soak it all up' -

Kenyan-born Froome suffered multiple broken bones in his crash and spent months in recovery, but always dreaming of one day winning the Tour again.

"It was tough. While I was in that moment, chasing that goal and just not seeing the progress that I would have hoped for, for sure those moments were tough, but that's part of sport," he said.

"I'm so glad that I did at least come back and try, and that crash back in 2019 wasn't the end for me."

Froome will discover a new role at the Tour as an international ambassador for Skoda, the auto manufacturer that is one of the race's main commercial partners.

"It's really cool to be here in a very different capacity," said Froome, who will be in one of the cars that travel along the route each day close to the peloton.

"I'd always wondered what it would be like -- obviously as a rider racing the Tour, you see the race in a certain way, but there's so much that you miss because you're in the middle of it.

"So I'm really, really quietly looking forward to what the next three weeks have got in store and being able to follow the race purely from a fan's perspective."

He will have a close up view of the frenzy that will likely follow France's great hope, teenage prodigy Paul Seixas, who is riding the Tour for the first time.

Many people believe Seixas could challenge for a top three finish, or even the overall victory, but Froome cautioned against putting too much pressure on his young shoulders.

"I think he's a huge talent. He's got a massive future ahead of him," said Froome.

"He's obviously got an enormous engine but I do think he's still 19 years old.

"If I were advising him, I would be saying, it's great that you're riding the Tour this year, but do just that, ride it, enjoy it as much as you can, learn from it, soak it all up.

"In his mind, he should probably be thinking his real goal is in two, three years' time, where he should be coming here to try and fight for the win."

O.Gauthier--SMC