David López goes into his third season with Sky where he has been a key domestique for Chris Froome and Richie Porte. In his debut season of 2013, he earned the trust of his two leaders.

Back then, Lopez started his season in great shape and worked perfectly in Paris-Nice to help Porte win the race. "Richie told Froome good things about me and I was lucky enough to get to share the Tour de France win with him," he tells Marca in an interview.

However, this year, the Tour is not on his agenda. At least for now. David López does not see it as a tragedy."We have signed very good riders and it is increasingly difficult to get into these races. But I will love to go to the Giro and work for Porte who can win the race. It would be my third grand tour win: the Vuelta with Valverde, the Tour with Froome and then let's see what's going to happen in Italy.

"Before July a lot can happen, the Tour is not impossible and there are other races top."

In the end, he recognizes that the Tour is the foundation of the work at Sky, but insists that they have more objectives. "Froome has been a few days in Mallorca with the rest of the team and then went to South Africa which he always prefers. He can do good workouts in summer temperatures. Surely he will already be competitive in the Vuelta a Andalucía."

In the Ruta del Sol, Froome will be up against Alberto Contador."As he will ride the Giro, he will go there a little short on preparation. What happens is that those tiders are always trying to win," he says before revealing the secret thoughts of the team. "Here at Sky, the truth is that we do not believe that Contador will do the Giro. It wouldn't be the first time that he has said one thing and then done something else. But that's his thing, we will focus on ourselves."

Nonetheless, there is a comprehensive monitoring of the rivals. "Looking at the numbers that we have used to analyze the performance of Vincenzo Nibali in the Tour de France, he would have been difficult to beat," says the Basque rider.