Compared to 2016, Chris Froome will have two race days in his legs before lining out at the five day Jayco Herald Sun Tour in Victoria, Australia. The three-time Tour de France champion won the queen stage of last year's race to secure the overall victory and ensure a winning start the season that was highlighted by the defence of title at the French Grand Tour in July. Froome is back Down Under, aiming to replicate his February success and build the platform for a fourth Tour title later this year.
"Thrilled to be back. It definitely worked for me starting off the season down here. I find it easy to get the miles in, I find it a great atmosphere out on the roads and a really competitive level of racing as well," Froome told reporters a day out from the race on the banks of the Yarra River.
Since 2013, the Team Sky rider has started his season with a stage race and emerged victorious at the Tour of Oman and Ruta del Sol prior to his Australian success last year. While there is familiarity to Froome's season start Down Under, the fact the race immediately heads to the Victorian Alps after the short 2km prologue meant the 31-year-old wanted an early hit out at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. He finished 49th but regularly animated the race.
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"We'll find out. It kicks off pretty quickly up Falls Creek on stage 1 so that is certainly going to kick things off pretty quickly for the GC guys," he said of the early climbing test. "I rode in Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race last weekend and that was a good test to blow out the cobwebs and hopefully put me in better shape for this week ahead.
"Personally I would have liked to have seen another two laps," he added of the one day race which featured three finishing circuits around Geelong with sprinter Nikias Arndt claiming the win. "I felt like I was getting better and better the more laps we were doing. I felt like people were starting to slow down and I was keeping the same speed. The training is there, I still have a long way to go for sure until I am in Tour de France shape but feelings are good and that is the main thing at this point."
While his Tour de France form still "two or three months" away, Froome is still promising to give it his all despite being a man down due to Owain Doull's appendicitis.
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