Having won the Corsican race last year with Team Sky, Chris Froome won’t be back to defend his title as his team were not been invited to race the 2014 edition of the Criterium International.
This year’s edition is the first to take place since last year’s Tour de France which visited Corsica for the first time in its 100 year history. The race takes place over two days with an 89km road race around Porto-Vecchio before an afternoon time trial of just 7km in the same town.
Theo Bos (Belkin) and the Sky duo of Richie Porte and Froome were the stage winners last year although neither of the trio will be present this time around. On the start line in Porto-Vecchio will be two former winners in FDJ’s Pierrick Fedrigo (2010) and Trek Factory Racing’s Franck Schleck in 2011 with a mix of WorldTour and Pro-Continental teams set for the UCI 2.1HC event.
Joining his brother Franck is 2010 Tour winner Andy Schleck as Trek have named four Luxembourgers in their team. While several big name grand tour contenders are busy in Spain, the last two winners of the race also have the Tour on their palmarès and the race has proven in recent year to be an important event in grand tour preparation.
