Team profile: Team Sky
Nationality:British
Track Record:2013 - Overall winner Chris Froome.2012 - Overall winner Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome runner-up, three stage wins for Mark Cavendish.2011 - Two stage wins for Edvald Boassen Hagen.
Team leader:Chris Froome, winner last year and runner-up the year before, has well and truly seen of the challenge of Sir Bradley Wiggins. Froome will be assisted again by bodyguard Richie Porte.
Changes since 2013:Froome was a bit exposed in the mountain stages last year, so climber Mikel Nieve is an addition to climbing specialists David Lopez and Xabier Zandio. American Danny Pate comes in to reinforce the team's engine in the flat.
Geraint Thomas has made the cut but fellow Brits Peter Kennaugh and Ian Stannard miss out for health and fitness reasons, as does Edvald Boasson Hagen, while no little public uproar has surrounded the omission of 2012 winner Wiggo.
Tour target?Winning the general classification again. Froome has secured victories in the Tours of Oman and Romandie this season, and was leading the Criterium du Dauphine until a heavy crash saw his challenge fade away. Team manager Sir Dave Brailsford's rates Froome as "the best stage race rider in the world", due to his rare combination of being one of the world's best time-triallers but also one of the world's best climbers.
The full nine:Bernhard Eisel (Austria), Chris Froome (Great Britain), Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus), David Lopez (Spain), Mikel Nieve (Spain), Danny Pate (USA), Richie Porte (Australia), Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) and Xabier Zandio (Spain).