Teams Sky has released the names of the 8 riders that will support Chris Froome at Tour de France, planned to start on 1st of July.
Team Sky organizers have included Thomas, Landa and Kwiatkowski and left out Stannard, Poels and Kennaugh to support the team in taking the fourth victory in only six years.
“We’re ready as a team and I can’t wait for the Tour to start now. Honestly, I just love it.” – @chrisfroome
? > https://t.co/GEmo0jDQWc pic.twitter.com/MG1koXn3NW
— Team Sky ? (@TeamSky) June 22, 2017
Team Sky’s victories came after Wiggins took the first Britain’s Tour de France victory back in 2012 and then followed by Froome’s well-deserved successes back in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Despite these great performances, Froome hasn’t quite been in his best shape this season, so far not winning a single race.
However, he gave a great performance at the recent Criterium Du Dauphine Tour creating high hopes to take the first overall place but disappointing in the last stages taking only the fourth place on the general classification.
Team Sky plans to turn its support to Geraint Thomas as the back-up team leader if any sort of crash or big time loss happens to Froome during the Tour.
Formation
Thomas and four other riders will be the ones to support Froome especially during the high mountains. Landa has proved himself with the victory he took at the mountains classification at the Giro while on the other hand, Mikel Nieve and Sergio Henao have been Froome’s right hand for many previous victories, supporting him in the right way.
Knees and Rowe’s main goal, as always, is to keep Froome out of Trouble in flat routes and early stages. They know how to process these cases and are included in the team’s formation especially to cover this part.
On my way with @chrisfroome & @TeamSky to @LeTour ? Can’t wait? pic.twitter.com/CNmbTyc9qp
— Michał Kwiatkowski (@michalkwiatek) June 22, 2017
While Vasil Kiryienka and Michal Kwiatkowski, being the most versatile riders on team Sky, should aim to closely support Froome into deep mountain stages especially during the early ones where fighting for a position becomes the ultimate goal.
Unfortunately, Team Sky has come to the conclusion they don’t need to include Peols or Stannard in the squad. Poels has been for a long time suffering from a knee injury after a crash on February, and this might be the main reason he was left out of the Tour this year. As for Stannard, the reasons are yet to be discovered…
Team Sky Tour de France team members
Chris Froome
Sergio Henao
Christian Knees
Vasil Kiryienka
Michal Kwiatkowski
Mikel Landa
Mikel Nieve
Luke Rowe
Geraint Thomas
