Tour de France 2012

No palmares until the age of 26, when he breaks through with second at a grand tour. Possibly explicable because the Vuelta is 'a chipper', but now he is lighting it up at the tour as well. First mountain finish, and he leaves an elite field in shreds then finds the extra to leave Evans and Wiggins as well.

Either he didnt train until the age of 26, or he is benefiting immensely from the marginal gains of Sky. If they can take a rider who seemed anonymous at pro tour level until last year, what could they do with a rider like Gesink (who Froome is now head and shoulders above)?

Start with this: [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Froome[/ame] noticing that he turned pro in 2007 riding in south africa. Then rode for Barloworld who were shit but still as a young and inexperienced rider was 12th in the young rider category in the 2008 tour and 7th in the young rider during the 2009 Giro. That was enough to be signed by Sky in 2009 as a domestique. However in 2010 he picks up a parasitic worm infection : http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-still-battling-parasitic-infection and the Vuelta was his comeback which he admittedly did very well in.

IMO that career path shows a young rider with promise who rode for years as a domestique and then got badly ill is finally fulfilling his promise when he should be nearing his physical peak anyway. Good on him