Conflict of interest at Romandie? Froome sounds off on Twitter

Chris Froome raises concerns over a CPA delegate who is the brother of Tour de Romandie's race director.

Photo: TDW

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It didn’t take a post-race interview to reveal how Chris Froome felt about the cold, snowy conditions at Tour de Romandie Tuesday. Sky’s two-time Tour de France champion (and also twice winner at the Swiss race) was vocal on Twitter, raising concerns about the weather and the potential conflict of interest surrounding Richard Chassot, the CPA’s rider representative for extreme weather.

The brother of the race organizer @RChassot ? Conflict of interest? @TourDeRomandie https://t.co/HfPSgeMN9z — Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) April 26, 2016

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That’s one way to get your race to go ahead without those pesky concerns about rider safety @TourDeRomandie @cpacycling

— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) April 26, 2016

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But despite protestations, the short prologue TT went on and Froome finished 60th place, 26 seconds behind winner Ion Izagirre. Others in the peloton were a bit more circumspect about the conditions.

“There was a window of pretty good roads, and I think I got a bit lucky as Richie [Porte] and some of the later guys in the last wave didn’t get so lucky, but that’s kind of prologues isn’t it?” said BMC’s Tejay van Garderen. “It’s a little bit disappointing. I think it was the luck of the draw with the weather,” Porte added.

Froome may have raised concerns, but overall, his Sky team seemed to take the bad weather in stride. That might change, however, if the week’s longer road stages, which will climb high into the Swiss mountains, are also troubled by bad weather.