Froome hopes routine change works in favour at Tour
Chris Froome is banking on a delayed start to his Tour de France preparations to help him win the yellow jersey and keep him in shape for a tilt at Olympic gold later this summer.
As a two-time winner of the Tour, Froome has a well-honed method of preparing but the Team Sky rider has taken a calculated gamble to change it this year as he targets the Olympic road race in August as well.
That meant a later start to his training over the winter - something which dovetailed neatly with the birth of his first son - but the 31-year-old said the change to his routine had been refreshing.
"Personally, it's been good for me to spend a little bit more time at home and ease into racing, but I feel it's been good for me to change it up and have a different focus," Froome said.
Although Froome won the Criterium du Dauphine earlier this month - a race in which his previous victories in 2013 and 2015 prefaced Tour glory - he has raced less by this point in the calendar than usual.
"It's about delaying reaching that peak form," he said. "In previous seasons a lot earlier in the season already in the spring I'd been in that shape and then basically tried to hang on to it whereas now I feel as if I've only just got there.
"Hopefully it means that because we've delayed everything I'll be able to hang on to it a bit longer, and hopefully into Rio too."
In both of Froome's Tour victories to date, he has taken yellow by the end of the first week but then found himself coming under pressure in the last week - most obviously in the dramatic conclusion to last year's Tour when Nairo Quintana attacked on L'Alpe d'Huez and briefly threatened to steal yellow.
The hope is that this year, the different approach will see Froome on song in the final week of the Tour, and then able to maintain that into the Olympics.
"Hopefully it will carry me better into the third week of this race," he said.
"That for me is something I've made a personal goal, to be stronger in the third week than I had been in the past."
Froome will be backed by a strong Sky squad weighted towards climbing specialists - again with that third week in mind.
If all goes to plan Geraint Thomas, a key lieutenant in last year's win, will be given more leeway to pursue his own ambitions in the general classification.
The Welshman endured a difficult last outing in the cold and damp Tour de Suisse, but has put it down as a learning experience and is confident he is in the right place ahead of the Tour.
"It was one of those things," he said of Switzerland. "I had a good training camp in Tenerife but maybe I was a bit too keen, pushing the diet as well. You have those races but I've done everything after to freshen up and fuel up, and hopefully I can be good when it matters."
On paper, Froome's main threat comes from Quintana, who finished second to him in 2013 and 2015.
Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford described the 26-year-old Colombian as a "brilliant rider" but said there were chinks in the armoury which could be exploited.
"His previous performances at the Tour de France have been epitomised by a strong last few days, a strong last week, and the question is whether he's stepped up," he said.
"He'll be asking himself that too. He'll come with some confidence but he'll come with some questions too because he's never done it, and when you've never done something you're going to ask yourself questions."
But Froome cautioned that Quintana was not alone as a threat - not in a race which also includes Alberto Contador, Fabio Aru, Richie Porte and a host of other hopefuls.
"I think (Quintana's) more motivated than ever," Froome said. "Both Tours I've been able to win he was runner up so as it stands on paper and on the road he has to be the biggest rival for me but in no way can we write off all the other rivals.
"Everyone is a rival until they lose time on the general classification."