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Chris Froome says he feels ridiculous looking in the mirror

Tour-time Tour de France champion and winner of the Vuelta a España bares all in The Times interview

Four-time Tour de France champion and winner of the 2017 Vuelta a España Chris Froome stripped down for a photo that accompanied a revealing interview in The Times on Saturday.

At 32-years-old, Chris Froome is in the prime of his career. The Kenyan-born Brit is probably this generations most dominating general classification rider which the strength to put time into his rivals on the time trial bike while the power-to-weight ratio to stay with the best and even beat them in the high mountains.

The result is an extreme body shape Froome is well aware of. “I can recognise the proportions are ridiculous. Skinny upper body, massive thighs — I do feel a bit ridiculous looking in the mirror,” Froome said in regards to his body. “That’s what it takes, but I am looking forward to getting in the gym when I retire and doing some bicep curls, getting some shoulders to balance things out a little.”

To achieve this body form, Froome goes to great lengths monitoring his diet during the season. With just the team time trial and the individual time trial at the world championships, Froome is surely looking forward to the end of his season.

“In the off-season I will put on six or seven kilos once I start eating normally and I’m not training five or six hours a day. I have an extremely sweet tooth so I do find dieting tough,” he said in the interview.

Froome also spoke about his mental strength, crashing, saddles sores, diet, therapeutic use exceptions and more in the interview. While the interview was quite revealing, it was the accompanying photo  that really had people talking.

Many people noted how lean Froome is, a fact that is not surprising for a professional cyclist fresh off of winning the Tour and Vuelta in the same year, something only achieved now three times.

However, in the interview Froome says that in 2015 when he did physiological testing he was 9.8 per cent body fat. That figure is high. Heading into the 2014 Tour de France, Vincenzo Nibali reportedly struggled to get his weight down. At the time his team doctor Joost de Maeseneer said he was 7 per cent body bad and that he needed to get below 6 per cent to be competitive.

There was quite a reaction to the photo and even drew Froome’s wife Michelle Froome into the social media debate. It also drew lots of comparisons to Mario Cipollini who has never been shy to show off his body in front of the camera.