Speaking at last week's Saitama Criterium in Japan, the three-time Tour de France winner told Cyclingnews that Team Sky "set a really hard tempo that discourages my rivals from attacking. That doesn't make for great TV viewing or racing but from our point of view that's the ideal situation, to have that control over the race."
Froome's 2017 schedule has yet to be decided but it is likely that he will start his campaign in Australia, as he did this season. The Giro d'Italia was briefly mentioned as a possibility but the more likely outcome will see him try and win his fourth Tour de France title. If that is the case then he will come up against the usual Tour de France suspects, among them Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana.
The Spaniard abandoned this year's Tour de France after a number of crashes nullified his challenge. Froome, though, will take nothing for granted should he come up against the Trek-Segafredo leader next July, despite Contador's last Tour win coming almost eight years ago.
"I don't think he's done," said Froome. "It's certainly no secret that things weren't ideal for him at Tinkoff by the sounds of the relationship that they had, so maybe in some ways things just weren’t clicking with him at Tinkoff.
"Maybe he's going to have a much better season next year. He was of course unlucky with his crash on stage 1 of the Tour this year and it was always going to be hard to come back from that. You've always got to treat him with respect and see him as an overall contender for the race win until he's no longer up there. I still think he is a threat."
As for Quintana, who lost out to Froome and Romain Bardet to finish third at the Tour but went on to beat Froome to the win at the Vuelta a Espana, Froome is confident that he can overcome the Movistar man next summer.
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"I'd certainly like to think that when I'm at the Tour and I'm at my best then I don't feel afraid of going up against him on the climbs, even though that's probably seen from the outside as more of his terrain," he said.
"I don't feel at a disadvantage. That's going to be an important part of next year's Tour, being completely ready for those mountain stages."
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
