Chris Froome (Sky) will pull the curtain on his best season to date with a one-day race, something he is still endeavoring to figure out.

He won the Tour de France and other stage races, but a win in a classic, like the Tour of Lombardy this Sunday, is conspicuous by its absence on Froome’s palmares. Froome, like the entire Sky team, doesn’t seem to have cracked the secrets of one-day races yet.

"One day races will always be an extra for me if ever I do get it right, or if I do come off with a result," Froome told journalists standing in the rain after having ignominiously abandoned the race for the rainbow jersey last Sunday. "I know my focus is stage racing."

While Froome’s credentials as a stage race rider are indisputable, as witnessed by his overall wins in Tour of Oman, Critérium International, Tour of Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné and, evidently, the Tour de France, the British rider is still trying to solve the riddle of one-day races. This season an anonymous 28th in the GP de Montreal is the best that Froome has been able to deliver. Previously Froome finished 36th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. On Sunday he will take to the start in the Tour of Lombardy for the first time.

Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, Froome made it clear that stage racing will continue to be his primary objective. Froome verified that his schedule for 2014 will be almost identical to his winning 2013 formula, consisting of a series of stage races leading up to the biggest jewel in the crown, the Tour de France. "Hopefully nothing will change for next year," he explained. "I still want to go back and target the Tour again next year."

He added, "One day racing is something I haven't perfected by any means. I haven't had any big results in one day racing. I know my niche is going to be Tour racing and stage racing in the future but on a personal level, I'd love to try to do well in a race like Liège-Bastogne-Liège and another interesting one for next year could even be Milan-San Remo with an extra climb towards the finish. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to at least trying to be up there in those races."

Froome may have a shot in the Tour of Lombardy following Great Britain's Florence flop last week. For one year he lived in Nesso, which sits on Lake Como and the course. After the Muro di Sormano, the race shoots down to Nesso, travels north to Bellagio and up Ghisallo.

"I didn't have good signals at the Worlds but that’s normal. It was a very intense season,". "I know the Tour of Lombardy well. I lived in Nesso and I trained on Ghisallo many times."

In Sunday’s Tour of Lombardy Froome will face opposition from new world champion, Rui Costa (Movistar), last year's Lombardy winner, Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). The all-star cast will do their utmost to deny Froome the chance to save face after the Worlds and to improve on his less than impressive one-day race record.