Chris Froome, born in Nairobi on the 20th of May 1985, is a professional cyclist who rides for UCI ProTour team, Team Sky.
Froome’s journey into road cycling started when he moved to South Africa for schooling as a teenager. However, back home in Kenya he had only ever ridden a mountain bike, guided into the sport by The Safari Simbaz founder David Kinjah. Kinjah was an inspiration to Froome and training together in the rural highlands north of Nairobi is what ignited the passion for cycling which Froome has today.
When Froome began his career he was registered with the Kenyan cycling federation but since the spring of 2008, has ridden under a British license, having been born of British descent.
As a neo-pro based in Italy in 2008, Team Barloworld gave Froome his first taste of top echelon road cycling in the prestigious classics of Paris-Roubaix, Fleche-Wallone, Amstel Gold and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He described this as an “eye-opening experience”. “It was a surreal feeling to be riding events I’d only ever seen on TV, alongside riders I’d only read about in magazines”.
In July 2008, Froome found himself lining up for the Tour de France despite having lost his mother to illness only weeks earlier. He completed the Tour, showing a lot of promise in the mountains and time trials, and even went on to podium in Italy at the Giro d’Appennino shortly afterwards.
Joining Team Sky in 2010, Froome was described by the team's management as "a rough diamond, in need of shaping and polishing". Being coached and mentored by Bobby Julich (an ex Tour de France contender himself), Froome had his first major breakthrough during the 2011 Vuelta a España where he finished second overall. This equalled Robert Millar's second place in the 1987 Giro d'Italia as the highest placed British rider in a Grand Tour.
| Date of birth | 1985/05/20 |
| Place | Nairobi, Kenya |
| Nationality | British |
| Nickname | Froomey / Froome Dawg |
| Height | 1.86m |
| Weight | 69kg |
| Strengths | Climbing & timetrialling |
| Teams | Team Sky (2010 - Present) |
| Team Barloworld (2008 - 2009) | |
| Konica Minolta (2007) | |
| Career highlights | 2013 Tour de Romandie - 1st Prologue |
| 2013 Tirreno-Adriatico - 2nd overall, 1st Stage 4 | |
| 2013 Criterium International - 1st overall, 1st Stage 3 | |
| 2013 Tour of Oman - 1st overall, 1st Points Classification, 1st Stage 5 | |
| 2012 London Olympics Individual TT - Bronze | |
| 2012 Tour de France - 2nd overall, 1st Stage 7 | |
| 2012 Criterium du Daupine - 4th overall | |
| 2011 Vuelta a Espana - 2nd overall, 1st Stage 17, 2nd Stage 10 | |
| 2011 Tour of Beijing - 3rd overall; 3rd Stage 3 | |
| 2010 British National Time Trial Championships - 2nd | |
| 2009 Giro del Capo II - 1st | |
| 2008 Giro dell'Appennino - 3rd | |
| 2008 Giro del Capo - 2nd overall | |
| 2007 Tour of Japan - 1st stage six | |
| 2007 Giro delle Regione - 2nd stage three; 1st stage five | |
| 2006 Tour of Mauritius - 1st overall; 1st stages two & three | |
| 2005 Tour of Mauritius - 1st stage two |
BIO