Yesterday, the Tour de France winner did a reconnaissance tour on sections of the 241.6km route along with Great Britain team-mates Geraint Thomas, Ian Stannard, Adam Yates and Steve Cummings prior to Saturday's race.

In particular, Froome was wary of the the 8.9km climb to Vista Chinesa, which has a maximum gradient of 20 per cent and has to be negotiated no less than three times.

Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "I'm definitely a bit nervous as we get closer to race day now. This is a pretty savage course. I'm looking forward to it, though. I think we have got a great team and, hopefully, we are in with a good shot."

The last ascent to Vista Chinesa will be followed by a descent and then a flat run to the finish beside Copacabana beach.

Cummings, who will be riding in a supportive capacity for Froome tomorrow, said: "This climb is really hard. It's a real climbers' climb. The favourites are probably the climbers, but having said that, everyone knows that and not everyone is a climber, so it is going make the race interesting and people are really going to have to try early on. We have to be aware that we have the race in our hands when we arrive here."