Chris Froome is bracing himself for an aggressive and uncontrollable three weeks next July after casting his eye over the route for the 2017 Tour de France, unveiled in Paris Paris’ on Tuesday.
With the overall number of categorised climbs and summit finishes reduced – to 23 and three respectively – and an emphasis on steeper gradients, the three-time champion is expecting a battle of a different nature to the one his supremely strong Sky squad controlled – some would say stifled – this year.
“With only three summit finishes, I think that opens up the race to be very aggressive elsewhere. People won’t wait until summit finishes to make their moves. There are certainly tough mountain stages that don’t necessarily end uphill, so that’ll lead to aggressive racing,” Froome told a small group of reporters backstage at the Palais des Congres, where the route was presented.
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“What racing on steeper climbs does lead to is being able to use your team a lot less. Drafting on 20 per cent climb isn’t going to help you. You can see quite big time losses on steep climbs, as we’ve seen in the Vuelta. It leads to very exciting racing.”
Froome did admit to being slightly disappointed by the lack of emphasis on time trialling, with a modest total of 36 kilometres against the clock. The race opens with a 13km time trial in Dusseldoorf and the fight for the yellow jersey will be settled on the 23km test in Marseille on the penultimate day.
Froome’s biggest time gains during his victorious campaign at this year’s Tour came in the time trials, and it’s an area where he holds a trump card over the climbers and almost all other GC contenders.
The Tour remains the priority
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