On Sunday Chris Froome will return to competition in the Criterium Dauphine after several weeks of intense training on Mount Teide in Tenerife, hoping to finalize his preparations for the Tour de France. The Briton who has set himself the goal of " riding for Grand Tour titles until the mid-30s" points to Alberto Contador as his main rival for La Grande Boucle.".

 

Froome praises Contador who recently won the Giro d'Italia. 

 

“He’s got an amazing Grand Tour résumé. I can’t write off guys like Nibali, [Nairo] Quintana, [Alejandro] Valverde, but Contador does stand out. He is the benchmark, the guy to beat," he told The Telegraph. He describes his relationship with Contador as “a healthy rivalry."

 

“It definitively pushes me,” he added. “I do think about my rivals quite a lot when I’m training. I think, ‘Would they be training like this? Would they be pushing this hard?’ It’s something I use for motivation.

 

“We don’t hate each other. I think when it does come to the Grand Tours, both of us want it to be a good race. We want to be able to take each other on and for one of us at the end to be able to say, ‘we were better’.

 

“It’s quite interesting the different paths. He is over in Italy getting through the Giro d’Italia. I’m obviously out training with the lads and doing the Dauphine.”

 

Last year Froome complained about the lack of doping controls on Moun Teide where both he, Nibali and Contador trained. The situation has changed. 

 

“I just wanted to be able to say, ‘Yes we were up there, yes we were tested, the results are there, nothing to worry about’. I also wanted to know that all our competition is being tested, especially with so many teams using Tenerife as a training hub at those critical times of the year," he said. "You think that would be one of the times testing should be at its highest. It was something I really felt I needed to draw attention to. I felt the authorities could have been doing more. I am happy with the number of times they have been [here] this year.”

 

 

With only a 13.km individual time trial and a 28km team time trial, Froome knows that the Tour de France will be decided in the mountains but to get there he has to overcome a lot of obstacles.

 

“So much of the Tour is surviving that first week, getting through those tricky stages; cobbles, classic stages. Once you are into the mountains it is a huge sigh of relief. This is what you have trained for, this is what the race is really about," he said.

 

Froome who turned 30 in May, won the 2013 Tour de France and was second  behind Wiggins in 2012. He has finished second in the Vuelta a Espana twice and still has lots of ambitions.

 

“I still feel really young in terms of cycling. I came into the sport really late. I’ve set myself a goal of riding for Grand Tour titles until the mid-30s. I do feel as if I am coming into my best years," Froome told the British newspaper