Chris Froome completed Team Sky’s second consecutive Tour de France victory at a stunning floodlit finale in Paris on Sunday evening, but rather than resting on his laurels the British rider is already setting his sights on new goals for the future and adding the rainbow jersey to his newly-acquired yellow tunic is a high priority.

This year’s World Championships road race takes place in Florence and the 279.6km route features a series of tough climbs which will suit the world’s best climbers. Few would blame Froome if he felt entitled to be named among these.

“The World Championships is an event that doesn’t often favour climbers like the way it does this year, so it’d be a great opportunity to go for that,” Froome told the Sky website. “I’d like to make the Worlds the focus for the second part of my season and use that as motivation to keep my form up in the races that come before it. Winning the yellow and rainbow jerseys would be an incredible double.”

Speaking of his future Tour de France participation and the possibility of retaining his win, Froome said he felt confident that it was a feat he would be able to accomplish because of his versatility as a rider.

“Every year things are going to change with the parcours, but I’d like to think I’m a well-balanced rider. I can time trial reasonably, I can climb pretty well, and I can’t really see what else they’re going to put in the Tour that I would struggle with, so I’d like to think I could come back every year and focus on the Tour.”

However, Froome is aware that the competition, if anything, will be even fiercer than it was in this year’s race with a number of riders rising through the ranks who will provide a stern challenge in the immediate years to follow.

“Guys like Quintana are going to be around for a long time and he is one of the guys who I’m going to have to battle it out with for the next few years,” Froome acknowledged. “All the time there are younger guys coming up through the ranks, guys who are going to keep me on my toes. “Aside from Quintana, there are other guys like Michal Kwiatkowski and Andrew Talansky who stand out. They might not have turned too many head in this year’s Tour but they’re heading in the right direction and I definitely won’t have it easy in the future.”