Having survived a hectic opening part of the stage, Chris Froome enjoyed a mostly calm day in the saddle in today's 15th stage of the Tour de France as his Sky simply rode tempo for most of the day. The race leader now looks forward to tomorrow's stage to Mont Ventoux and claims to have his eyes firmly focused on the GC, not the stage win.

Chris Froome and Team Sky had a hectic start to today's 15th stage of the Tour de France but when 18 riders - none of them any GC threat - finally moved clear, they were happy to take it easy, simply riding a steady tempo on the front of the peloton for the rest of the day. Froome was very happy to avoid more chaos after yesterday's unexpected drama.

"That wasn’t that far from a perfect day for us today," he said. "Maybe we’d have made the first 80km a little more relaxed than it was. 25 guys going in the break caused a bit of stress and a lot of teams who missed out brought it upon themselves to bring that move back and weren’t able to - so guys were going flat out in that first part of the race today. It was a little more controlled towards the end with my team-mates on the front keeping an eye on things. They were great."

Having led the race for more than a week now, Froome has been accustomed to most of the pre-race obligations that follow with the honour of wearing the yellow jersey. One of the purposes of his spring campaign was to get into as many leader's jerseys as possible to prepare himself for a possible stint in the most coveted of those jerseys.

“Every day we go out there and we’ve got a fight to stay in position,” he said. “I feel like I’m still adjusting to everything that comes with the yellow jersey. It’s not just about being up at the front of the race on the bike. There’s all the media that’s attached to it and the hype that comes with the yellow jersey. But this is the goal and I feel absolutely privileged to be in this position.”

Cycling has enjoyed a fantastic increase in popularity in his native Great Britain and the race leader certainly feels that increased interest on the roads in France.

“The number of British fans that are over here is just incredible,” he said. “But it’s not just the British fans. We’re getting a huge amount of support from all the fans out on the road. There really are thousands and thousands of people who have come out to support the bike race and cheer us on. It’s quite an amazing atmosphere on the road as there is barely a stretch without noise and without people shouting and cheering. You get used to the constant hum of noise around you during the day.”
 

Froome may have enjoyed an easy day but tomorrow he faces a much sterner test. The long 242,5km 15th stage finishes atop the Mont Ventoux and Froome expects to come under attack.

"A lot of people have lost time in the race now and a lot of people have reason to attack now," he said. "A lot of people have spent a lot of energy in the last few days so it’s going to be an interesting one and there’ll be quite a fight up on Mont Ventoux tomorrow. Winning on top of Mont Ventoux – in cycling terms that has to be a dream come true – I’m sure a lot of people will be going for it tomorrow."

The win may be a prestigious one but Froome himself is not necessarily making it a target of his own.

“Tomorrow's stage is a really interesting one because obviously there'll be an early breakaway that's going to go," he said. "We wouldn't necessarily be that interested in bringing that breakaway back; we're looking at general classification not the stage win, but other teams will want to bring it back so that they can race for the stage. It's going to be quite a tactical game tomorrow in the early parts of the race but once we hit the mountain it's all about who has got the legs and that part of the race is quite straight forward."

The final battle may come down to the climb but Froome reminds everyone that what goes beforehand will also play a crucial role.

“Everyone needs to remember that Ventoux comes at the end of a 240-kilometre stage," he said. "It really is an epic day tomorrow and for a lot of guys their day will be over by the time we get to the bottom of the climb. They will be sitting up and thinking about riding in the gruppetto. But for the GC guys that will be when our race starts. The climb should be about an hour long and there’s potentially a lot of attacking riding to do in that hour.”
 

With the Ventoux stage, the race enters its final extremely hard part and Froome knows that the race is not won yet.

“We head over to Mont Ventoux tomorrow which is going to be a really big test," he said." It's an extremely historical climb in terms of cycling so there'll be a lot of guys going for it to try and win. Then we've got a rest day and the last week in the Alps. The thing I'm most looking forward to in the Alps is getting them behind me – that's got to be what everyone in this position would be thinking."

“There is still everything to race for at this point; two-and-a-half minutes is nothing when you have a bad day in the mountains. I just hope to get through the Alps without any bad days and get a bit closer to Paris.

Froome may have lost both Vasil Kiryienka and Edvald Boasson Hagen and thus only has 6 riders for support. However, he feels comfortable that the team has what it takes to bring him all the way to Paris.

“We've still got seven really capable guys and from the outside it might look as if we've had a rough couple of days but I think, in comparison to what the other teams have had, we're doing pretty well at the moment," he said.

Team principal Dave Brailsford looks forward to tomorrow's battle and based on what he has seen from his team leader until now, he is confident that Froome will make it another good day for Sky.

"It was a pretty steady day really," he said. "When the break went Lampre and Euskaltel rode hard for the first half of the stage and then the guys just rode tempo for the rest of the stage. I think most people had one eye on tomorrow and they will be looking forward to tackling Mont Ventoux, just as we are. Our tactic will be to ride fast and I don’t think we have any reason to afraid of any other teams. Chris has already shown that he can climb really well and time trial really well. He’s in great shape and we’re really looking forward to it – we can’t wait to get onto Mont Ventoux tomorrow."

"Chris was in super condition today, as were the rest of the team, and they are excited too. They’ve been waiting for a long time for tomorrow’s stage. It’s going to be exciting and we want to race."
 

Starting at 14.00, you can follow the drama on CyclingQuotes.com/live.