TRANSFER OF POWER

eraint Thomas, and indeed Chris Froome, will not go on forever. Ineos, no doubt to the chagrin of some of its more vociferous online critics, probably will. The current indefinite racing hiatus has robbed us of the opportunity to see how the team’s two British grand tour champions would have bounced back from 2019. Froome’s undergoing long-term rehabilitation from the terrible injuries he sustained in his crash at June’s Critérium du Dauphiné; Thomas was in the process of bouncing back from the relatively minor disappointment of coming second in the Tour de France, albeit to a team-mate. But what would have been true, coronavirus crisis or otherwise, is that the clock was ticking loudly for both riders at the start of the year.