The much debated spat between Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins may be over after the pair sat down together at the recent Sky gathering in Mallorca to put an end to their internal disputes. Now Froome hopes to have Wiggins at his side when he tries to defend his Tour title this summer.

It all started when Chris Froome attacked the group that contained his team leader Bradley Wiggins on the stage ot La Toussuire in the 2012 Tour de France. While the episode never had any lasting consequence in the race - Froome was asked to wait for his captain - it strained the relationship between the two major stars on the Sky team.

Sky sports director Sean Yates has later revealed that Wiggins was ready to leave the race that night and that team principal Dave Brailsford had to persuade the race leader to stay in the race. Since that episode, much has been written about the spat between the two British riders and the pair have done little to hide that their relationship could be better.

Prior to the 2013 season, it was agreed that Wiggins would focus on the Giro d'Italia and go on to support Froome in the Tour de France. However, Wiggins later backtracked on that plan, claiming that he wanted to target the Giro-Tour double, and this prompted Froome to issue a statement, revealing that he had been promised the captaincy role in the race.

The Sky management had to react and publicly backed Froome's stance. The episode was just another example of the lack of communication between the parties.

A few weeks ago, it was revealed that Wiggins had failed to pay Froome his share of the bonus that Wiggins received from the team for winning the race. Wiggins paid the money at this year's world championships in Florence at a time when the incident was set to be mentioned in David Walsh's book Inside Team Sky.

However, that story may now have been the last one in the string of public disagreements between the two Sky riders. In an interview with The Daily Mail, Froome reveals that the pair sat down together at the recent Sky training camp in Mallorca and put an end to their spat.

"We're very different people," he said. "Brad would say the same. But, like I say, we're in a good place now.

"The fact is Brad and I have just been on a training camp together in Mallorca and we've had a talk about things. It was very constructive and we are in a good place now. It was important we did that and it was important for the team, too. To be honest we should have done it a very long time ago, just to clear the air, but we are on good terms now."

Froome admits that he is partly to blame for the attack in the 2012 Tour that created the disharmony.

"The incident in 2012 was at the root of it all," he said. "I'm not sure it was that big a problem but it was all played out so much in the media, it was allowed to escalate. I thought the race had evolved in such a way that opened the door for me to go. Obviously it was the wrong moment. I accept that I read the situation wrong."

"I thought Brad was fine. But it very quickly became apparent that it was a problem and that I needed to stop and come back, which is what I did."

In 2014 Froome will go back to the Tour where he hopes to become the first repeat winner of the race in the post-Armstrong era.

"Part of what's driving me is a desire to show, post-Armstrong, that it's possible to have successive Tour victories clean," he said.

He could have Wiggins at his side in that race. The 2012 winner of the race will go back to the track in an attempt to win another gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2014 season could be his final one as a road rider.

He hasn't announced his race schedule yet but has admitted that his time as a grand tour rider is over. When he was knighted by the Queen earlier this week, he revealed that he would like to go back to the world's biggest race to ride in support of Froome.

"That’s the plan, I’m deep in training at the moment and training hard, trying to stay injury free again, which wrecked this summer," he told Sky News. "I’d love to be back at the Tour de France in some capacity. Just to get back to the physical heights of 2012 and long term, focusing on gold medal number five in Rio.

"At the moment Chris is the current winner of the Tour de France and I think he has the right to defend that title next year. If I can play a support role I’d love to be back in the team and on the start line."