Christopher Froome make a huge step towards claiming a back-to-back victory in the Tour de Romandie yesterday, after once again joining forces with his breakaway partner from last year’s edition of the Swiss stage race, Simon Spilak (Katusha) and opening up massive time gaps ahead of the decisive time trial on Sunday.

Froome aimed to use Tour de Romandie as a test of his condition ahead of the Tour de France after suffering from minor health problems forced him out of the Tirreno-Adriatico and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and is seems that he received his answers. Even though the 29-year old Briton eventually failed to win a stage and take a lead in the general classification, he put himself in a perfect position to claim an overall victory on Sunday.

"It was a good test," Froome told Gazzetta dello Sport, explaining his race tactics.

"I knew that the climb eased before the King of the Mountain sprint and so I attacked on the hardest part. Before Lopez and Nieve did a fantastic job."

Froome admitted that he didn’t want to give Spilak a stage win and, more importantly, bonus seconds following their good cooperation during yesterday’s breakaway, but quickly got over a defeat in the sprint and turned all his focus to the overall victory in the mountainous event.

"I wanted to win the stage but sprinting isn’t my forte. But now I'll try to win the race," Froome said.

Asked about other Tour de France contenders featuring in the Tour de Romandie, Froome genuinely pointed out that they, just like him, also received some answers on yesterday’s queen stage.

"How do I think Nibali looked? It was a good test for him. He's here to get some answers, like me," Froome said, knowing he had found the answers he was looking for.

Team Sky sports director Servais Knaven was full of praise for yesterday’s performance of the Kenyan-born rider, what had to be a huge relief following a string of highly disappointing results obtained by the British squad within last few weeks.

“It was a really strong performance from Froomey. It was great to see and naturally everyone is really happy. The team rode very well," he told the Team Sky website.

“The moment to go was earlier than we thought it would be but when Nibali attacks there’s only one thing you can do and that’s follow it. Then obviously Froomey kept on riding and dropped everybody which was really impressive."

“Spilak was going well and Froomey waited a bit so they could ride together. He has the jersey now so Katusha are likely to defend the lead. They are traditionally a team which defends the jersey. It’s a pity not to get the stage win but the most important thing today was to take time on as many people as possible. Now we’re in a really good position for the time trial but first we need to get through tomorrow (Saturday). That’s not going to be an easy day.”