Chris Froome: Why 2017 Tour de France is different, which stage will be crucial, my biggest rivals

It’s a very different Tour de France to the Tours that I have won, certainly. It doesn’t have the same number of mountaintop finishes that we have seen in previous years; it doesn’t have nearly as much time-trialling; so it really is a much more open race in that sense. And there aren’t blocks of mountains like we’ve seen: there’s a bit in the first week, a bit in the second week and a bit in the third week. It won’t be day in, day out of treacherous mountains. There are one or two here and there, but it will be a much closer race and it could be a race where tactics play a much bigger part, as opposed just to brute force on the climbs.

It’s harder to pick a key moment where the race will be won or lost but if I had to put my finger on one big stage that’s going to be definitive in this Tour de France then I would say the climb in the Alps up to Izoard; Izouard goes up over 2,00m and that’s going to be the day; that’s going to be the Mont Ventoux stage of this year’s Tour de France.

I’d say the most notable of my contenders is Richie Porte. It’s definitely quite a strange feeling racing against Richie. It’s like it always was: we used to race each other in training sometimes. But at the same time it’s serious business trying to win the Tour de France against your mate.

The tour is incredibly challenging, both mentally and physically, but there’s just something special about the Tour. It’s just that one level above any other race that we do. It’s almost got this magic about it, this excitement, this energy, which makes it more special than any other race we do.