Kenyan Chris Froome Eyes Tour de France Win in Future

From riding mountain bikes to school in Nairobi to finishing on the podium of the world’s biggest bike races, Chris Froome’s voyage from Kenya to cycling’s elite is the stuff of fairytales.

But for the Nairobi-born racer, winning one of cycling’s biggest prizes may have to wait — for now.

Froome, who finished runner-up at the Tour of Spain last year one place ahead of Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins, has been one of the sensations of the Tour de France so far.

He beat defending champion Cadel Evans to victory in the first hilltop finish of the race on stage seven (READ: Kenyan-Born Chris Froome Wins Seventh Stage of the Tour de France), when Wiggins took the race lead, and was the only Sky rider to help Wiggins stave off a series of attacks the next day.

The icing on the cake so far for the 27-year-old was a superb performance in the stage nine time trial on Monday.

While Wiggins won the stage, his first ever in the Tour, to stretch his lead over Evans to 1min 53sec, Froome moved up to third place overall at just 14secs off Australian Evans.

It has led to a similar scenario to last year’s Tour of Spain, only then Froome took the leader’s red jersey after Wiggins ran out of juice on a steep climb before losing it to eventual winner Juan Jose Cobo of Spain.

This time, Froome says he is dedicated to making sure Wiggins becomes the first Briton to win the world’s biggest bike race.

“My priority is to get Bradley on the top step of the podium in Paris,” said Froome, who spent the first 14 years of his life just outside Nairobi before moving to South Africa.

- Gulf Today