Cycling-Tour champion Froome says clear of parasitic disease

Tour de France champion Chris Froome has been cleared of the parasitic disease bilharzia that has troubled him for four years, he told Friday’s Independent newspaper in an interview. “At last I am free of the debilitating disease bilharzia,” said the Kenya-born Froome, who this year became the second Briton to win the Tour de France after Bradley Wiggins in 2012. “When I was first diagnosed they said it had been in my system for at least two years, but it could have been there even longer, five or six years possibly.” Froome will begin his quest to retain the Tour de France title next year when the race starts in England on July 5.