Feb. 5 – Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has just confirmed his Ruta del Sol participation despite the fact he continues to be under UCI investigation since last year at Vuelta a Espana after his urine sample indicated twice the permitted level of a forbidden asthma drug.
Team Sky also confirmed the news stating that its 32-year old champion is now preparing for his first event of the season which starts on February 14 and lasts 5 days in total.
Froome returns to Ruta del Sol two years after being able to grab the overall victory along with a stage win.
“I have put in a hard training block in January. It’s been good to be out on my bike and to get the miles under my belt,” Froome said when being asked about his intensive training program he has been following since January in South Africa.
“It’s been a couple of years now since I was last at Ruta del Sol. It’s a race I’ve enjoyed in the past and so I’m looking forward to going back there.”
Starting with the right foot
Chris Froome to line up at Ruta del Sol.
? > https://t.co/PbIrJPaaB6 pic.twitter.com/IF4A5AuJab
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) February 5, 2018
The Ruta del Sol which is set to take place from February 14 to February 18 seems like the perfect way for Froome, who has been intensively clocking up the training miles during the past month, to start the new season, something that Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport had already predicted.
“I’m confident that we will be able to get to the bottom of what has happened. And I’m working hard with the team to do that,” Froome claimed in a statement Team Sky made public a while ago.
“Obviously I understand that this situation has created a lot of uncertainty. I completely get why there has been so much interest and speculation.
“I hope that people will appreciate there are limits to what I can say whilst the process is still ongoing. But no one is keener than me to move things forward as quickly as possible.”
