Hugo Houle maintains that the relationship between his teammates Michael Woods and Chris Froome is in good shape, despite an article in L’Équipe which claimed the opposite on Monday. “There is no problem between the two,” assured the Quebec cyclist.
The French sports daily dropped a little bombshell by claiming that Woods had demanded that Froome be left out of Israel-Premier Tech’s selection for the Tour de France last year.
Froome’s annual salary, estimated at 4.5 million euros, but renegotiated downwards, would have represented “a certain injustice” in the eyes of Woods, “to the point of clearly calling for the downgrading of the Briton (39 years old) in the hierarchy of the Israeli team”, we could read from the pen of journalist Philippe Le Gars.
“Present in May 2023 at his side on the Tour de Romandie then in June on the Route d’Occitanie, the Canadian had thus obtained from his sports management the non-selection of Froome for the Tour de France in order to have a team totally at his service at the start of Bilbao. “, continued Le Gars, usually well informed. “Chris had a bad time during this period, confided a close friend, he had not seen the blow coming. “
Founder Sylvan Adams and co-sponsor Jean Bélanger, CEO of Premier Tech, would like to “put the Briton back in the spotlight” because Woods “is no match for Chris,” according to an agent cited by the journalist .
Froome, a four-time Tour winner, dismissed the information out of hand, saying “this is news to me” in a post on X where he sought Woods’ opinion. “Same thing here,” reacted the Ottawa cyclist, stage winner at Puy-de-Dôme last year.
The subject was the subject of discussions at the team lunch before the third stage on Wednesday, said Hugo Houle. The veteran maintained that the article “in no way” shook the Israeli-Canadian team.
“[Chris] was also surprised by the news. There’s no real story there. It’s just a journalist who wrote that article. From what Froome says, from what Mike says and from what I see, there’s no problem between the two.”
For his part, Froome, who has no longer been a shadow of himself since a terrible fall on the sidelines of the Dauphiné in 2018, spoke of “complete fabrication” with regard to the internal functioning of IPT, in an article in cyclingnews .com. “We’re good friends,” he said when describing his relationship with Woods.
In the same paper, sports manager Rik Verbrugge described L’Équipe’s insinuations as “big bullshit”, adding that selection for the Tour would be based solely on performances on the road, like last year. Injured at the Giro, Woods must compete in the Tour of Spain in August. Froome, released again on Tuesday, will have a lot to do to justify a return to the Tour after his participations in 2021 and 2022.