Cyril Guimard said that Team Ineos could finally explode at this year's Tour de France and that Chris Froome is the "gunpowder" that will set it all off.

Guimard has won seven stages as a rider and seven overall victories in the Tour de France as coach of Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Lucien Van Impe.

According to Cyclism'Actu (opens in new tab), he explained that he would not put Froome, Egan Bernal, and Geraint Thomas (the last three Tour winners) in the same lineup.

As well as being on the comeback trail from a career-threatening injury, Froome recently revealed that he will leave Team Ineos at the end of 2020 to join Israel's Startup Nation.

"He will definitely be there, but how it unfolds," said Guimard, "I honestly don't see us putting all three of them on the starting line." [In any case, Frum is like gunpowder. At what moment does a spark light the fuse and blow everything up? It's impossible to know, but who would watch Bernal tell Froome to run for himself from the bottom of the climb to the empty bottom? Unless Frum is strong, but if not, why pick him and leave out the other good domestics?" That could lead to a clash. Either Froom is in bad shape and doesn't deserve to have him on the team, or he is in good shape, because Ineos will be confronted with the sword of Damocles every day.

"This could be a unique opportunity to see Ineos explode during the Tour. If these three can get to the starting line, it will pave the way for their rivals. It will be good for Thibaut Pinot, Romain Bardet, Nairo Quintana, and Jumbo Visma. It will be an interesting race."

Regarding Froome's move to the emerging Israeli country, Guimard felt that with the rise of 22-year-old Bernal, who last year became the youngest Tour winner in over 100 years, there was no other option for Froome, a four-time Tour champion.

"Froome had to go. It's impossible to have a rider who has won four Tours and a rider who has won one Tour and has the potential to win four or five on the same team. If Froome had said, 'I can't win the Tour anymore, so I'll leave it to the young guys,' that would be a different story, but that's not Froome's character," Guimard said.

"On one level, when you are on a team, it is not about giving gifts, it is not about helping your teammates win races like the Tour. He was able to do that in Paris-Nice, but not in the Tour. So he could not stay with that team, and Ineos could not leave Froome and turn his back on Bernal. Bernal made it clear that he was the boss. From there, Froome's departure was inevitable."