To race at the Olympic Games on a course that suits the peloton’s best climbers – that’s the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Chris Froome faces today.
The Brit, who sealed his third Tour de France win in the past four years just two weeks ago, goes into the 237.5km among the strong favourites thanks to the route’s mountainous profile.
Froome has become virtually unbeatable in the Tour in recent years, but although Olympic gold is decided over just one day, not 21 like in France, the 31-year-old is confident of replicating his success.
“Last week was tough,” Froome said of the days following his victory in Paris, during which he took part in several criteriums in Northern Europe and the RideLondon-Surrey Classic on Sunday.
“It was pretty non-stop after the Tour and having to get straight back on it and focus on the Olympics. At the same time, the Olympics is such a big goal and it only comes around every four years. Especially on a course like this – it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity – so it’s pretty easy to get the motivation to focus on this.”
Team GB come to the road race with an enviable line-up of riders, with any one of the five selected in with a shout of a medal.
Froome is joined by Team Sky teammates Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard, both of whom were part of the victorious Tour de France team, Tour stage winner Steve Cummings and the Best Young Rider from the three-week race, Adam Yates.
“Because of the course and because of the riders we’ve got here we potentially have the riders to cover whatever is going on out on the road. That’s a great place to be,” Froome said of Team GB’s chances of gold.
Cummings added: “The Olympic Games is different to any other race because there are only five riders in each team, so there’s not one nation that is strong enough to control it for the whole thing.
“Every rider has to play their part and what you’ll see is other nations, such as Belgium with [Philippe] Gilbert and [Greg] Van Avermaet – if they wait with those two riders until the end, Froome will just take them on the climb, so you have to try earlier.”
The GB riders picked out Spain’s Alejandro Valverde and Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali as the biggest threats to their gold ambitions, but the Brits believe the bonds that exist between each of the riders in their team will set them apart from the rest.