Winning the Tour de France is Froome's best preparation for the Olympics, says Ellingworth

The road to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games is long and arduous but with Rod Ellingworth leading the way Chris Froome could not be in better hands as the British rider embarks on the season that will see him aim for the Tour de France, a tilt at the Olympic double and then possibly the Vuelta a Espana.

Ellingworth recently accompanied Froome to Brazil for a reconnaissance of the Olympic road and time trial courses. Upon touching back down in Manchester on Saturday evening, the Great Britain elite road coach talked to Cyclingnews about the trip and the early stages of the Great Britain-Team Sky-Froome master plan for Rio.

“It was good for Chris to have a look and get his head around what it’s like there. He was keen to have a look and he rode the road and the time trial course but obviously the time trial course is part of the road course anyway. You kill two birds with one stone there and then on Saturday we rode the finishing circuit for the road race,” Ellingworth told Cyclingnews.

Balancing objectives

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Daniel Benson

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.