Team Sky rider Chris Froome has once again begun a battle with bilharzias, a disease that is caused by parasitic worms. Froome had been battling against the disease for much of the previous season in 2011 but he managed to recover somewhat before finishing in second place at the Vuelta a Espana and believed that he had been rid of it for good but it seems that he has been struck by it once again. According to the blood tests conducted by his physicians, he still had the parasites in his system and according to the doctors, unless his system is clear of the parasites, he will keep having the relapses of the disease.

The disease was apparently picked up by Froome when he visited his motherland Kenya with his family in November 2010 and suffered through much of the 2011 season, but believed that he had finally been able to get rid of the disease. Although Chris Froome rode for his team in the Tour of Romandie, he had hardly any practice in his legs before getting on the bike for the race.

He also did not feel right during the training camp conducted by the team in January in the Spanish city of Mallorca and did not take part in the next race due to an infection in his chest. The infection had him bed ridded for as many as two weeks and although he had more or less recovered after that, he was still weak for another fortnight, and was thereby unable to start at the Paris-Nice.

But according to the statements in his personal website, Chris Froome believes that the tests have shown positive results at last and he is feeling and looks to get back to peak fitness ahead of the start of the Tour de France.