Chris Froome is ready to achieve an historic Grand Tour double at the Vuelta a Espana. The Team Sky leader seems to be fresh and confident before the start of the Spanish three-week race even if he gets set for another three weeks of hard riding.

Since his second Tour de France title in Paris last month, the British rider has not raced. "I'm feeling good, but while I've recovered from the Tour, I'm not going into the Vuelta in the same kind of form. I think that's understandable given that the Tour was my main objective of the season, and my sole target for the whole year before it. I'll be riding this race on the back of the form I had there."

He told also about the Grand Tour double. "That'd be a massive achievement. That's one of the reasons I'm here, and to my knowledge, only Jacques Anquetil and Bernhard Hinault have ever actually done it. Thinking about adding my name to that list will help me get through the race as well as I can."

This year, the route will be very difficult with a strong second week. "It's a really tough route but I actually quite like the look of it. The second week should be the hardest, and the 11th stage to Andorra is one we're all focusing on - that could be the toughest stage I've ever ridden! I've also got my eye on the time trial on stage 17, and I'll hopefully gain some time on there."

Team Sky will bet on Geraint Thomas and Nicolas Roche to support Chris Froome. "It's a really strong team. Geraint [Thomas] and Nico [Roche] were invaluable to me at the Tour so it's great to have them in my corner again. Mikel and Sergio are both more than capable riding good GC's themselves, and Vasil [Kiryienka] and Christian [Knees] both have big engines and are always valued members of the team."

"Ian [Boswell] deserves to be riding his first Grand Tour. He's been climbing really well recently so it'll be a good experience for him, and then we've got Salvatore [Puccio] to bring some Classics and positioning expertise for the flatter stages. I'm really happy with the group of guys that have been picked and we're all looking forward to racing."