Chris Froome (Team Ineos) has reacted to the 2020 Tour de France route reveal, calling the 21-day race 'brutal'. Organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) have designed a challenging parcours that includes five mountain finishes before the race concludes in Paris on July 19.
"It's a brutal, brutal course, but good," Froome said in an interview at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on Tuesday. "I think it's going to be a really explosive race and very much in favour of the mountains."
ASO have routed the race through five mountain ranges: Alps, Massif Central, Pyrenees, Jura and the Vosges. The 2020 race will include 29 categorised climbs along with the five mountain finishes. The standout summit finales are Puy Mary in Massif Central on stage 13 and on the Col de la Loze at Méribel in the Alps on stage 17.
"I think that's great, it gives a lot of opportunities for a general classification to be played out," Froome said. "That's what everyone wants to see, everyone wants to see a big battle between the rivals."
Froome is expected to line up at the Tour de France with Team Ineos as a main contender to win a fifth title. His team is also expected to field defending champion Egan Bernal and 2018 champion Geraint Thomas.
Other overall contenders that were at the route reveal were Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale).
"For the riders as well, I think it's great because it gives a lot of opportunities to try to make the race and to try to win," he said.
