Chris Froome has told Cycling Weekly that he doesn’t expect to come out all guns blazing in the 2015 season in the early months and that he is fully focussed on winning the Tour de France.

“I’m not necessarily looking to go out there in February winning anything but if I’m going well enough, and I’m able to pick up one or two results along the way, then great,” he says. “But obviously keeping in mind that the main goal is going really well at the end of June.”

Froome is one of the big favourites for the Tour, which he surprisingly doesn’t think is a title he has earned yet, despite his strong results since 2011. Instead, he pointed to more successful riders as the reference points for favourites. He pointed I n particular to Spaniard Alberto Contador as the real favourite.

“I wouldn’t say I doubt myself but I think athletes in general have very low esteem. People talk to me now and say, ‘how does it feel to be the favourite for the Tour de France?’ and I’m like, ‘are you kidding?’ OK, I’ve won one Tour but I didn’t win last year, I got beaten in the Vuelta and yet people are still saying I’m the favourite for next year. How does that work?”

“Alberto Contador is definitely the point of reference as far as Grand Tour riding goes,” he says affirmatively. “You just have to look back. The guy won the Tour de France in 2007 when he was riding with Discovery so he knows what he is doing. He’s been winning the biggest races for a long time now.”

“He knows how to get ready for them and if anyone can back up the Giro/Tour then I would say he’s the guy to do it,” Froome says. “I don’t have that kind of confidence that I can do something like the Giro/Tour. I did the Tour/Vuelta back in 2012 and managed to come second and fourth, so it’s something that could potentially be on the cards, but I’m going to have to get through the Tour first and see how that goes.”

To build up successfully to the Tour, Froome explains that he has much more free reign to design his own race programme than he has had in previous seasons.

“They basically said to me, ‘Listen, if you’re going to be motivated to go to a race that’s going to work so much better for us. Tell us what you want to do and we’ll make it work, or we’ll work the programme around that.’ It’s been really good working with a team like that.”

“As an athlete I take my work very seriously. I want to be as professional as possible about what I do. I always try and stick to my training and get all the work done. That’s a must for me, to do everything possible to be in the right shape.”

Froome insisted that 2013 wasn’t his peak and he says he has a lot more to give to the sport of cycling and is confident he has the ability to win plenty more Grand Tours.

“I came into cycling relatively late compared to guys like Contador, who, I mean, I think he came out of school at the age of 16 to focus on his cycling whereas I was still at university at the age of 22,” Froome says. “I’ve definitely got some improvements to make but I’m optimistic about the future. I really feel as if I have more to give.”

The 29 year old acknowledged that it was possible to ride all three grand Tours but to challenge for all three in one year would be very difficult. He isn’t confident enough to confirm he would make an attempt at the Tour-Vuelta double this season, as he is so focused on the Tour.

“It’s possible, but to actually be up there fighting for the win I believe would be very difficult,” Froome says. “You’d almost have to do no other races in between and just focus on training. It probably would take away from the smaller races and mean that a lot of the big names don’t do any of them.”

“I just think at this point, where I am, I personally don’t feel I’m up for, or able to do, all three like that.”