Chris Froome looks likely to miss 2015 Tour de France

Tour de France winner in 2013 Chris Froome has strongly hinted that he may not take part in next year’s prestigious event, following the route announcement for 2015.

The Kenyan-born British cycling star made these claims due to there being a lack of individual time-trialling for the 2015 Tour, that will start in Utrecht, Holland. As a result, the Team Sky rider may focus on the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana instead.

Froome, 29, crashed out of this year’s Tour de France after fracturing his wrist, and may miss out on the chance to reclaim his crown. He has twice finished second at the famous Spanish race, though, which may motivate him to go one place further.

“The team and I will have to give it some careful consideration before we make any commitments to which of the grand tours I will compete in,” he said.

“There’s no two ways about it, next year’s Tour is going to be about the mountains. There’s very little emphasis on time-trialling which means the race will be decided up in the high mountains.

“With six mountain-top finishes it is going to be an aggressive and massively demanding race.

“I see myself as quite a balanced general classification rider and the Giro with its inclusion of a long time-trial of 60km and tough uphill finishes will make it a well-balanced race which suits me well.

“If I did the Giro I may also be able to get myself back to top shape for the Vuelta and go there with a realistic chance of aiming for the win.”

Meanwhile, he added: “In the past I’ve only targeted one grand tour each season but it could be a good opportunity for me to focus seriously on two.

“It’s still early days though and we’ll have to sit down and put our heads together as a team to work out what 2015 is going to look like for us.

Since the 2015 Tour de France course announcement, Froome’s odds have drifted, and he is now the joint-favourite with Colombian youngster Nairo Quintana at 5/2. Two-time Tour champion Alberto Contador, meanwhile, also sees his price lengthened to 11/4.