Team Sky’s Tour de France line-up will not be announced until after the completion of the Critérium du Dauphiné, Tour de Suisse and Tour of Slovenia but Dave Brailsford already has the majority of the team’s roster in his mind, if not on paper.
Supporting Chris Froome will be Richie Porte, who is now recovered from his Giro d’Italia abandonment and back on his bike, while the team are waiting to assess the recovery of both Leopold König and Sergio Henao before deciding on their participation. Geraint Thomas and Nicolas Roche are also expected to form the nucleus of the team with Peter Kennaugh in the mix for his first Tour start since 2013.
“Most squads have the cornerstones of their Tour teams sorted out. You still have a few questions around the periphery and we’ll look to see what happens here and after the Tour de Suisse,” Brailsford told Cyclingnews before the start of stage 6 of the Dauphiné.
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“Not many, I don’t think,” was his response when asked about how many slots were still up for grabs with the final places set to be fought out between the climbers and domestiques for the flat stages.
“You have to have that mixture of experience and form. You have to factor in if people are going to be in form in that final week. We saw that with [Ryder] Hesjedal and [Steven] Kruijswijk in the final week of the Giro, that they were starting to blossom while others might have been getting tired. That’s the ideal factor as well as form. So we have a couple of places left maybe for the Tour team. “
Every season is different, of course, and for Brailsford that means different questions and ultimately different challenges when it comes to team selection. Twelve months ago he was dragged into the public debate over Bradley Wiggins’ exclusion from the Tour team, with matters coming to a head when the Hour Record holder broke rank from Sky protocol and appeared on the BBC in a move that may have won public support but ultimately cemented his place on the sofa for all of July.
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