Froome ready to take centre stage

Chris Froome currently sits seventh in the general classification
6 July 2013

With the nervous first week of the Tour de France over, Chris Froome is looking forward to stretching his legs on the first real mountain stages on Saturday.

Froome's main objective through the first seven stages has been mere survival but with that achieved - Froome sits seventh in the general classification just eight seconds behind leader Daryl Impey - he can now turn his attention to the mountains where this race is decided.

"It will definitely be a fight on the climb tomorrow up to the finish," Froome said. "This is what we've trained for and we're looking forward to putting it to good use now."

The racing moved up a notch on Friday with four categorised climbs on the road west from Montpellier to Albi, but that pales into comparison with Saturday's 195km stage south from Castres to Ax 3 Domaines.

Although the first 120km are relatively flat, the riders then face the huge hors categorie climb of the Col de Pailheres before the category one climb to the finish. That should bring the first pitched battles between Froome and his rivals - primarily Alberto Contador, but also the likes of Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez.

"The first real mountain stage is a bit like the first round in boxing - you go in and test your partner to see how his fitness is and I'm sure there will be a bit of sparring tomorrow," said Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford.

"It's hard to judge anybody's form heading into it and you can only truly assess somebody in the mountains once you get there. To try and speculate isn't going to work so we'll wait and see where everybody's at tomorrow."

Froome's dominant form in 2013 has made him the clear favourite for this year's Tour for several weeks coming into the event, from the day it was confirmed team-mate and 2012 champion Sir Bradley Wiggins would not be competing due to injury and even before.

Froome is a considerably stronger climber than Wiggins and that should be on show on Saturday, with the help of Sky's renowned ability to control the pace of the peloton when the road ramps upward.

"I think we've got a well-established style of racing already," Froome added. "I don't see us doing anything differently. Obviously in the heat of the race you've got to be able to make calls within those last few kilometres and I'm sure it's going to come down to that tomorrow."

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