20 Questions: Chris Froome

Chris takes time to answer a whole host of fun and intriguing questions at the Vuelta a Espana.

Froomey talks aliens, leopards and dancing to his XBox

Chris Froome might have been enjoying a well-deserved rest day at the Vuelta a Espana, but still took time to pick 20 questions from our random collection and answer them for your reading pleasure. Take it away Froomey! Do you believe in aliens? No. I think if there were aliens, we’d 100% have seen them by now. What do you do apart from cycling to keep fit? My fiancé has just bought an Xbox One and I’ve been roped into doing some of those dance move games. I’m terrible at it so I try and keep away from it as much as possible, but sometimes I have no choice (laughs). Apart from that I enjoy swimming in the ocean, especially in the summer after the Tour, and I like to take my spear gun out and go diving for fish. Have you ever Google’d yourself? Yes I have before, and it’s amazing some of the stuff that comes up – and pretty scary as well – there’s some things on there that I didn’t even know about myself. Most of it’s amusing though. What's your favourite TV programme? I enjoyed Breaking Bad. I watched that all the way through last winter. What talents, apart from being a great cyclist, do you have? I wouldn’t say I’m that talented at anything else really, so it’s probably a good job I chose cycling. I can’t paint or draw, or anything like that. What was your least favourite subject at school? It would have to be history – I just found it really hard to get interested in, things that happened such a long ago that didn’t have a direct impact on my life growing up in Kenya. All the exams were just comprehensions as well, remembering and regurgitating facts, and I never liked that side of it. It’s strange because I actually had a really cool history teacher. He used to re-enact things, which made it fun at times. What’s the best piece of advice anyone’s ever given you? My mother always taught me to do what I love through the way she lived, and that’s stayed with me to this day. What’s your favourite animal? From all the game I know in Africa, it’s definitely a leopard. I like them because they’re really shy but one of the most powerful cats out there. They’re rare to see as well, a real unsung hero, and very elegant in the way that they move. If you had more time to devote to one thing, what would it be? Right now I’m trying to help set up a project to help grow cycling where I lived in Kenya. If I had more time I’d love to get more involved in that. What is your favourite meal to cook? A really good cut of fillet steak that’s been thrown on the griddle for a few seconds and sizzled on either side. They’re easy to cook and taste delicious. Are you a morning person or an evening person? Definitely a morning person. That helps being a cyclist. Would you rather be really, really big or really, really small? Really, really big. That’d put you at an advantage in a lot of situations. What’s your favourite fruit? Mangos, for no other reason than they taste great. Do you have any phobias? Not really, no. There’s nothing that immediately springs to mind. Can you play a musical instrument? I used to play the trumpet at school but it’s pretty rusty these days. I don’t know if I could play any tunes any more, but I could probably get through the scale. What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep? I’d say around 36 hours, so about a day and a half. That was on a big New Year’s celebration many years ago. If you were a superhero, what powers would you want to have? I think the best power to have would be able to change between powers (laughs)! At home, do you have anything that you should really throw away, but can’t? I’m a terrible hoarder so there’s all sorts of things that come onto that list. It makes moving around a lot very difficult. Have you ever sailed a boat? Never a proper boat but I have sailed a two-person catamaran before in Kenya. What’s your favourite pizza topping? Mushrooms. Again, simply because I like the way they taste!