Chris Froome will kick off his World Championships campaign today when the Tour de France winner lines up as part of a very strong Sky team in the team time trial. The Brit is confident that the team is strong enough to take a spot on the podium despite the fierce competition.

Chris Froome has made the world championships the centrepiece of the second part of his season and has specifically prepared for the event by racing in USA and Canada. While the road race remains his major target, the Brit will kick off his campaign in today's team time trial.

Despite earlier statements from team principal Dave Brailsford indicating that the team wouldn't give the Worlds TTT too much priority - which was in line with last year's race where the team lined up a team that was only good enough for 9th - Sky has assembled a powerful roster for the race. Froome will race alongside fellow time trial specialists and Tour de France riders Richie Porte, Vasil Kiriyenka, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Geraint Thomas and Edvald Boasson Hagen.

While it was the toughness of the course that attracted Froome to the road race, the Brit would have preferred a harder route for the team time trial which is almost completely flat. The long flat straights require big power that smaller guys like Froome, Porte, Kiryenka and Siutsou may lack compared to the big engines likes Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara and Taylor Phinney. Hence, Froome hasn't set his sights on the win and just hopes to get onto the podium.

"I think on a good day we can run a podium," he told Cyclingnews after warming down after reconnaissance of the 57km time trial route. "It's fast, really fast. Like any team time trial it's going to very rapid. It should be about an hour long effort. We've got a decent team here: a couple of guys who rode the Vuelta, a couple of guys who trained specifically for this."

While one may doubt whether the team's stage race riders have the power for the course, Geraint Thomas certainly has. With his track background, the Welshman will be one of the driving forces and he is confident in his team's chances.

"It's super fast, it's like riding the track because its super smooth," he told Cyclingnews. "I'm looking forward to it. I know all the roads except in the centre of Florence, so it's nice to be back. It'll suit big engines who can ride fast on the flat. I think we've got a good team for that. Everyone can ride fast. It's always different trying to put out the power on a TT bike on the flat but I can that thanks to the track and so can these guys."

While Thomas predicts a tight contest, he expects his British team to be in the running for the win. Surprisingly, he doesn't point to defending champions and main favourites Omega Pharma-Quick Step as one of the winning candidates.

"Hopefully we'll win it but it's between us, BMC, Orica has some big units," he said. "RadioShack has got some strong guys but I'm not sure on their strength in depth, Garmin will be there. It's the usual suspects." 

Starting at 14.00 CEST you can follow the race on CyclingQuotes.com/live.