Chris Froome insists that he is ready to race for the win at this year’s Vuelta a Espana. The 29-year-old Brit hasn’t raced since he crashed out from the Tour de France on stage 5.

Froome says he is much more relaxed than when he was training for the Tour and he hopes that might play to his advantage.

“I’ve definitely got a lot more relaxed approach to this year’s Vuelta compared to the Tour, for example,” he explained to TeamSky.com. “I haven’t had the same lead-up that I’d normally have to a race like the Tour de France. I’ve not had the altitude camps or the normal racing blocks leading into a Grand Tour.”

“My main objective here is to get the Grand Tour in my legs and finish the season in good condition. That will hopefully take me through to the winter in a good way. It would be great to get a result here, especially after a disappointing Tour. But I do know how hard it is to race, especially at this level, with so many big competitors here.”

“It’s going to be a really tough race but I think we’ve got a great team and I’m really looking forward to the next three weeks.”

Froome looked to have suffered an early setback when he crashed during a recon of today’s Team Time Trial stage in Jerez. However, he says he is fine to race and has no injuries.

“The first thing that went through my mind was ‘here we go again,’” Froome admitted. “There were flashbacks from the Tour. There was just a bit of oil on the road and I’m sure that whoever the first guy was heading into that roundabout would have gone down too. It’s one of those things but I didn’t get hurt. It was very slow speed. I’m fine and ready to go on Saturday.”

Froome has a strong squad to support him at this race, including Peter Kennaugh, Mikel Nieve and Vasil Kiryenka.

“There’s a couple of guys here I haven’t seen since our training camp in January. It’s great to be back with those guys and we’ve got a really well-balanced team here. We have strong climbers and strong rouleurs who can do a job on the flat. It’s a great team and a good bunch of guys.”

Considering the strength of his team, Froome is hoping for a good start in the team time trial today:

“The team time trial is going to be a tough stage, especially with the start on the pave and the number of roundabouts. We’re one of the last teams off so we’ll be able to see what we’re up against and to see how other teams fare before we go off. The stage is a big objective for us and it would be a really great for us to start off with a good result in the TTT.”