Team Sky had a very disappointing Tour de France but the team is ready to bounce back and has already set its sights on the 2015 edition of the race. Chris Froome has been resting in America and according to team principal Dave Brailsford, the 2013 champion is very, very hungry to reclaim his title.

Dave Brailsford admits this year’s Tour de France was a huge learning experience for everyone involved at Team Sky, and insists his riders will be back hungrier than ever in 2015 to try and reclaim the yellow jersey.

Brailsford was on the ground during the 101st edition as Team Sky went on a rollercoaster ride during the three weeks of action.

Confidence was high heading into the race as the team aimed to make it three wins from three, but things didn’t run to plan as Chris Froome and Xabier Zandio were both forced to withdraw through injury, and illness robbed Richie Porte of the chance to impress as the race hit the mountains.

Team Sky’s Team Principal was impressed with the way his riders responded to those setbacks however, and believes there are plenty of positives to take from the 21 stages, even though the team did emerge empty handed.

He told TeamSky.com: “We came into the Tour with high hopes but after five days we lost Chris, which was a blow because we believed he could win the race. Then we had Richie in second place as we headed into the first rest day, but things didn’t go well for him either during the second half of the Tour.

“The riders kept on going though. They were trying to get in breakaways every day, but a stage win ultimately evaded them.

“You have to think about things logically though. We’ve won a lot at Team Sky, and at some point you can’t keep winning. That’s disappointing, but sustaining success is different than trying to achieve it the first time around, and there’s a lot of learnings we can take from that.

“It’s important that we’ve learnt to win with dignity, and lose with dignity. We want to congratulate Vincenzo Nibali - who we’ve admired as a rider for a long time - and congratulate his team. We know ourselves what a wonderful experience it is to win this race, and they dominated it this year, so hats off to them.

“Our job now is to refocus and come back stronger. Things like this make you hungry and want to go again, and we’ll be trying to win that yellow jersey back next year.”

Brailsford revealed that the Tour’s first three stages were the ones that would live longest in his memory, and was brimming with pride as he recounted a Grand Depart which is now widely regarded as the greatest in the race’s history.

“Those first three days in Britain were absolutely amazing,” he continued. “I’ve been involved with cycling all my life - and when you see where it came from to where it is now with millions of people lining the road during those first three days – it was one of the best things I’ve ever seen or experienced.

“Whilst we may not have won the race this year, I think that reception in the UK was more than a victory for us, and it was a definite positive to take from the race.

“When we started Team Sky five years ago, we wanted to take a British team and try and win the Tour with a British rider - to do it clean - and try and create a cycling revolution in the country.

“It seemed like such a crazy thing at the time, such a long way away, and yet we managed to achieve that.”

And while Brailsford believes it is important to learn from the last three weeks, his attention is already turning to the future and he knows Chris Froome is just as determined as he is to bounce back stronger when the race rolls out of Utrecht in 2015.

He added: “Chris has been resting up and recovering over in America for the last few weeks, but he was watching the race and I know he was missing it.

“This setback has made him very, very hungry, and more determined than ever to come back next year and fight for that yellow jersey again.

“We’ve won it twice at Team Sky and we want to win it three times now – whether that’s next year or the year after – we’ll keep on trying. The 2015 Tour de France starts now for us and I’m sure we’ve got an exciting 12 months to come.”