When you're a three-time Tour de France champion your every pedal stroke falls under the microscope and Chris Froome is no different. The gaze under the lens only intensifies when, as Froome has done, you slim down your race programme to just a few select events before July's main event.
In March the Team Sky leader embarked upon the Volta a Catalunya and looked in fine fettle and lay in second place until a number of teams ambushed Froome and his team on the road to Reus. The wounds were severe with Froome - and his entire team - almost missing the time cut. It led to more questions over the British team's ability to read a race and sense when they were vulnerable.
In the weeks since that heavy defeat, Froome and his entourage have had time to stew at their Tenerife camp, pick apart where things went so horribly wrong, and then set about restoring some form of stage racing authority. Tuesday sees Froome turn a pedal in anger for the first time since Catalunya, with a short 4.8km prologue at the Tour de Romandie. The race has been a happy hunting ground in the past, with two wins – although one was shrouded in controversy at the time – in the last four seasons.
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"Every build up to the Tour is different, every Tour of Romandie is different. This year's Tour of Romandie isn't quite as mountainous as in previous editions. Maybe we'll find a different kind of winner to this year's edition," Froome told a small gathering of press on the eve of the race.
The Team Sky leader was quick to quell the mounting questions over his recent dry spell – he's not won a race since the final time trial at the Vuelta a Espana – pointing to the fact that his slower build up is down to shifting his form towards a more concerted Tour-Vuelta challenge this year.
"I think, personally, that I don't need the reassurance quite like I did in the past. I have the reassurance of three Tour wins to tell me that I can do it again. It means that I don't have the pressure to go out there early season and perform at that level.
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