Chris Froome Naked | Tour Champ Strips Off For 'My Sporting Body' Series in The Times

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Written by: Stuart Kenny

Last Updated: 18 Sep 2017

“Imagine Chris Froome naked.” Despite the Kenyan-born Team GB’s star’s unrivalled success on a road bike, we don’t imagine this is a statement that’s heard an awful lot. And that’s meant with no offence to Chris, of course. After winning his fourth Tour de France alongside his first Vuelta in 2017 there can be no doubt that he’s one of the finest human specimens on the planet. It’s just that whenever Froomey is in the public eye, he’s normally about 17 days and hundreds of miles into a gruelling road race, surrounded by bruised, bleeding, exhausted and sweaty men with enormous legs and small, little shoulders. There’s something about imagining any grand tour rider naked after they’ve been going through all that pain and endurance that just doesn’t seem quite right. We’ve all seen the gruesome post-ride Tour shots after all. The veins for days (and months and years) don’t normally make you say “corr! Would love to see the rest of him”, as represented by Polish rider Pawel Poljanski below…

But anyway. Enough about how we’ve never thought about Chris Froome naked before. We’re thinking about Chris Froome naked now. And, as it were, we don’t have to ‘imagine’.

It’s part of a series from photographer Marc Aspland called ‘My Sporting Body’, in which athletes lay it bare besides a chat about exactly what they think of their current physical state, not unlike the famous, if controversial annual Body Issue from ESPN, which action sports stars such as Courtney Conlogue, Travis Pastrana, Laird Hamilton, Coco Ho and whole hosts more have stripped down for before. It’s a fascinating premise, and Froome’s conversation, which you can read in full on The Times website, really is interesting stuff as well. “I can recognise the proportions are ridiculous,” he tells the newspaper. “Skinny upper body, massive thighs — I do feel a bit ridiculous looking in the mirror. 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.” Other athletes who can have been on the other end of Aspland’s lens include GB race walker Tom Bosworth, 2014 Commonwealth silver medallist Kelly Edwards, jockey Lizzie Kelly and Paralympians Robert Oliver and Emma Wiggs.