Vuelta a España runner up Chris Froome is currently in South Africa building up to the 2012 season. Speaking in a video interview, the Kenyan born rider said he hopes to reinforce his achievements from this year and hopes to make a return to the Tour de France which he previously contested with Barloworld.
“It’s something I’d like to do,” he told VeloNation on Saturday. “I did the Tour in 2008 and it’s something I’d like to go back and do now. Especially after this year and how things turned out for me at the Vuelta. I think it would be a really good event to try and target and solidify how things went this year.”
Froome went into this year’s Vuelta as a support rider for Bradley Wiggins, but stunned both the team and the world of cycling when he proved stronger over the three weeks. He won stage 17, beating Juan Jose Cobo (Geox TMC) in a thrilling mountain-top finish, and ended the race just 13 seconds behind the Spaniard in Madrid.
Much of the reason for his jump in form was down to finally recovering from the Bilharzia parasite. As his Spanish performance shows, the 26 year old Briton can look forward to a more successful career from this point on.
Froome’s desire to head back to the Tour de France will further increase the competition for places. Bradley Wiggins is likely to be the captain for the overall race with new recruit Mark Cavendish again chasing the green jersey. His inclusion in the team will mean that the team will at least partially have to be composed of riders who can help him in the sprints.
Even if that means there will be one or two riders less for the high mountains, Froome believes that the change will be a beneficial one for the team.
“Mark is quite a character to say the least but I think he’ll fit into the team really well in the sense that we need a leader like that,” he said. “He’s not scared to say what he wants and how he wants things done or who needs to do what in the team.
“I think from that side of things its going to be really good for the team, its going to be healthy that everyone knows their role. We are going to have a guy on the road making sure everyone does what they need to do.”
The full interview can be seen in the video below.