Froome will not put limit on ambition after Vuelta

Cycling: Team Sky rider may focus on Giro d’Italia to complete sweep

British cyclist Chris Froome is refusing to accept his historic Tour de France and La Vuelta double should be the limit of his ambitions.

The 32-year-old completed victory in La Vuelta on Sunday to become the third rider to win the Tours of France and Spain in the same year and the first since the Vuelta was moved to its current position in the calendar in 1995.

Froome has long eyed May’s Giro d’Italia, knowing the Tour is his priority and it will likely remain so in 2018 when he will seek a fifth yellow jersey.

His achievement in the last three months has led some to suggest he could target all three grand tours in the same year.

Asked if winning the Giro, Tour and Vuelta was a realistic aim, Froome said: “I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, nothing’s impossible, but certainly it would take some doing.”

Froome has won four of the last five Tours and had finished runner-up in La Vuelta three times, in 2011, 2014 and 2016 before claiming the red jersey this year.

Belgium’s Eddy Merckx won a record 11 grand tours in his storied career and was known as The Cannibal due to his appetite for victory. Asked if he could hope to target Merckx’s achievement of 11 wins, Froome said: “A completely different era.

“Eddy Merckx’s time of racing, he was able to win every single race on the cal- endar. The sport is transformed since his time.”

One of the recent transformations has been the dominance of Team Sky.

Team Sky have won five of the last six editions of the Tour de France, with Bradley Wiggins triumphant in 2012 before Froome’s wins in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Froome said: “We’re not going to change what we’re doing. It’s obviously a winning formula. The team is super strong.”

Team principal Dave Brailsford has endured a difficult 12 months following the revelation by Russian hackers the Fancy Bears that Wiggins received permission to use a powerful corticosteroid before the 2011 and 2012 Tours and the 2013 Giro.

Wiggins and Brailsford insisted the use of triamcinolone was medically necessary.

A separate UK AntiDoping investigation into a package delivered to Team Sky and Wiggins at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine is ongoing. All parties deny wrongdoing.

Asked if his support of Brailsford was unequivocal, Froome said: “Certainly.”

“It’s obviously a winning formula. The team is super strong”

Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford