Chris Froome will not win the Tour de France this year. He probably will never win the Tour de France again, and deep down he knows that. But that doesn't mean he is ready to accept it.

"I've come back from a horrendous crash in the last three years, but it wasn't the way I ended my career," Froome said Thursday at Israel's Premier Tech pre-race press conference, a career-changing crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphiné. Asked why he continued to race after three years without results, he replied.

"This team gave me the opportunity to return to the sharp end of the sport. After my injury, that's what drives me, and that's my main goal, to get out of bed every day and get back on the bike. I can't win the Tour de France right now, but I still dream about it and I'm going to keep chasing that dream."

A year ago, Froome returned to the Tour for the first time since that crash and finished 133rd overall in Paris in relative obscurity. Few past winners have struggled so obviously in the Tour. In the modern history of the Tour, Greg LeMond's last two struggles are probably not worthy of comparison, but he crashed in both 1992 and 1994.

Froome, by contrast, viewed his finish at Gruppetto as another stage in his rehabilitation. Now in the second season of a five-year contract with Israel Premier Tech, he insisted that he has no intention of ending his career for the foreseeable future.

"Certainly, I don't intend to retire just yet," he said. I have hope for the future."

"I'm not going to retire just yet. So I just want to continue this good feeling and momentum and see where it takes me."

"I'm not going to retire," he said.

After abandoning the Criterium du Dauphiné due to illness, Froome is optimistic heading into the Tour after finishing 11th in the Mercan Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes, his best result in the past three years.

"I've been riding without any problems for the last few months leading up to the Tour. 'I haven't had any hiccups since January. I think I've overcome quite a few hurdles over the last 12 months. Apart from a bit of physical discomfort at the Dauphiné, everything has been uninterrupted since January and everything has been going up."

Froome will compete in the Tour as part of the Israeli Premier Tech team, which includes Jacob Fuglsang and Michael Woods. The team's objective is to win a stage win rather than a top overall finish, and Froome expressed hope that he will be competitive once the climbs begin.

"It's a bit of an unknown where I am at the moment, but rest assured I will give 100%," he said. If we are going for the stage win, I want to be up there."

At this point, the 37-year-old has seen almost all of the Tour, but the race retains the ability to disorient even the most experienced participants.

"I went to the team briefing earlier in the afternoon, and I've seen the whole thing on video, how it works, because it's my tenth time now. 'So I went to the team presentation. But the crowds yesterday were a whole new experience. So I went to the team presentation, and I thought I was going to be like the other nine. [Every Tour is unique. Every race is unique. Every Tour tells its own story. It's a great privilege to be here."