After the unveiling of a Tour de France route with only 14km of individual time trialling, 2013 champion Chris Froome considers not to line up at La Grande Boucle in 2015. Instead, the Brit may do the Giro-Vuelta double.

On Wednesday the 22nd of October the official 2015 Tour de France route was revealed in Paris.  Speaking from the Team Sky team-building camp in Weymouth, Chris Froome gave his first impressions of the 2015 route. 

"There's no two ways about it, next year's Tour is going to be about the mountains. There's very little emphasis on time trialling which means the race will be decided up in the high mountains. With 6 mountaintop finishes it is going to be an aggressive and massively demanding race." 
 

The 2015 edition has little opportunity for riders to make significant gains on their rivals in time trials with a time trial stage one of only 13.7km and a team time trial of 28km on stage nine. This is notably less than in recent editions of the Tour de France. 

Froome's participation in the 2015 Tour de France is not certain, as he explains: "The team and I will have to give it some careful consideration before we make any commitments to which of the grand tours I will compete in.  I see myself as quite a balanced GC rider and the Giro with it's inclusion of a long TT of 60km and tough uphill finishes will make it a well balanced race which suits me well.  If I did the Giro I may also be able to get myself back to top shape for the Vuelta and go there with a realistic chance of aiming for the win.

"In the past I've only targeted one grand tour each season but it could be a good opportunity for me to focus seriously on two.  It's still early days though and we'll have to sit down and put our heads together as a team to work out what 2015 is going to look like for us."

The Grand Depart in Utrecht, Holland on the 4th of July will see the riders off on their three week quest for the maillot jaune, passing through Belgium before entering Northern France on stage four.  Stage five will have the riders tackle cobble sectors from the infamous spring classic Paris-Roubaix.

Froome's bid for the 2014 title came to an abrupt end after a series of crashes in which his wrist and hand were fractured forcing him out of the race.  His withdrawal from the race came on the wet roads of stage five which also later contained cobble sectors.

When asked about the inclusion of cobbles on stage five of the 2015 edition, he sounded upbeat "I actually quite enjoy the challenge of riding on the cobbles. It's a difficult and stressful obstacle for us to overcome when it's part of a race like the Tour de France, but we're all in the same boat and there's no reason why I'd be any worse off than any of the other GC contenders".  He continued "The cobbles were not the cause of my departure from the Tour this year, it was the crash on the previous stage which could have happened to anybody.  I was in the wrong place at the wrong time".

Who will be Froome's biggest rival if he does line up for the Tour?  "We'll have to see who's going to be there but I think Alberto Contador will be the man to beat.  You can never discount the likes of Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali and other GC contenders like Purito (Rodriguez) and Valverde.  Alberto is the guy who stands out though.  He came back after his injury in an amazing way to win the Vuelta España title this year and I expect him to be just as strong next season."