Wout Poels: Who are we to say when Chris Froome should stop?

At 36 years of age, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) probably had his most successful season to date, winning a stage in both the Tour de France and Vuelta a España in 2023.

The victories marked Poels’ first individual successes in Grand Tour racing and he will aim at completing the triple at the Giro d’Italia in 2024. However, while the years march on, the veteran has no regrets about racing in the services of others during the bulk of his career, and he has nothing but support his former leader Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) in deciding to race on for the next few years.

Read more: ‘Geraint Thomas proves that age isn’t a factor,’ says a resilient Chris Froome

Poels turned pro back in 2009, but he made his name as a super domestique at Team Sky where from 2015 to 2019 he became integral within the team, helping Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal to Tour de France and Giro d’Italia success.

He won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2016, becoming the first Team Sky rider to win a Monument, but the majority of those years on the British team saw Poels sacrifice his own chances for the good of the collective. It’s only since his move to Bahrain Victorious that the Dutch rider has been able to open up his racing calendar to the prospect of individual success.

“I always wanted to win a stage [in Grand Tours] but at Team Sky I was always working. I enjoyed that but for your own personal goals, it’s a nice thing to have now. It’s also why four years ago I came to this team, to achieve these things. You get older and older so it’s extra nice to tick it off the list,” Poel told GCN at the Bahrain Victorious team camp in Spain.

Whether Poels could have been a GC stage racer in his own right is up for debate but on his day he was, and still is, one of the best climbers in the world. Looking back he has no regrets about not pursuing GC aspirations.

“Maybe but I also see what you need in order to be a GC rider. Sometimes at Sky people would say I needed to go for GC because I was climbing with the best but I could also take a few days off in that time and recover in races. It’s also pretty demanding, and it’s not a regret I have because I had other things. I went there with Froome in his good old days. It was humbling just to help such a big rider. I didn’t really regret it,” he said.

Froome’s position in the peloton has followed a different trajectory to Poels' in recent years. The pair were out riding a recon together at the Critérium du Dauphiné when Froome suffered his career-threatening crash. Since then the four-time Tour winner has struggled for fitness and form, but despite the lack of wins, Poels believes that his former teammate should decide on the manner of his future and when and where he retires. 

“It’s always so easy for people to say that he should retire, that he’s made enough money, things like that, but if it’s your passion and you still enjoy racing and training camps, then who are we to say he should stop? You can only stop one time,” Poels said. “Would I do the same, I don’t know but it looks like he’s still enjoying it. It’s sad of course, that he never came on the level again after his crash. If he likes to do it, then who are we to say he should stop?”

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Chris Froome and Wout Pools celebrate the Brit's Giro d'Italia victory in 2018 at the end of stage 20

Chasing the Grand Tour triple and Olympic selection in 2024

Poels’ ambitions for the 2024 very much focus on stage racing. He may skip the Ardennes next season and target the Tour of the Alps before ramping up his preparation for the Giro d’Italia and then the Tour de France. In both races, stages will be his primary objective.

“I’d like to do the Giro to have the Grand Tour triple of stages. Last year if you’d asked me about the aim I would have told you that I’m pretty far off but now I’m closer. It’s a nice personal goal for me and I think it’s realistic. I’d also like to do the Tour. So let's see if we can do both. Maybe I’ll skip the Ardennes and do the Tour of the Alps but that’s a bit open at the moment,” Poels told GCN.

One race that Poels would like to add to his calendar, but remains uncertain at this stage, is the Olympic Games road race. The Netherlands only have three spots to play with and Mathieu van der Poel will take one of those. The reduction in the size of the fields by the organisers is a frustration for Poels, however, with the Dutch rider stating that it will alter the style of racing and eliminate some of the best riders in the world from the start line.

“I think it’s ridiculous what they’ve done with all the spots. And I saw that bloody breakdancing is in the Olympics. I’ve had a feeling that in the last 10 years cyclists have really started to target the Olympics more. It’s a real shame that they now make the rules that the peloton will only be 90 riders," he said.

"It’s ridiculous because you don’t have all the best riders on the start. Then all these countries with no cycling history, they have riders there who can’t even follow for 10km. It’s a nice Olympic thought but it doesn’t really work. Ninety riders in the peloton, it takes some of the shine off. We only have three riders from the Netherlands and if your team has three riders then you almost can’t control the race. You have to make deals with other countries. But if you ask me if I want to go, I still do."