Daily Times

PARIS: Four-times winner Chris Froome was left out of Israel-Premier Tech’s (IPT) squad for this year’s Tour de France on Friday but vowed to return to cycling’s premier road race next year. The 38-year-old Froome said in a recent interview that competing at this year’s Tour was his “ultimate goal” after his hopes at last year’s race were derailed by a positive COVID-19 test. IPT named Guillaume Boivin, Simon Clarke, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Nick Schultz, Corbin Strong, Dylan Teuns and Michael Woods (CAN) in their eight-strong squad for the race, which starts on July 1 in Bilbao. “It was a tough decision to select our Tour de France team this year but we feel we selected eight riders best suited to fulfilling our performance objectives,” said IPT General Manager Kjell Carlstrom. “The fact that we had a difficult decision to make when looking at our long list shows the strength and depth of our rider group, and unfortunately we could not select everyone.” Froome told Global Cycling Network that he was disappointed with the decision. “Physically I was ready, but unfortunately I was unable to show my full ability at the races assigned to me due to equipment issues,” he said. “I respect the team’s decision and will take some time before refocusing on objectives later in the season and returning to the Tour de France in 2024.”