Tour de France 2015: Chris Froome Might Miss Race to Focus on Giro d'Italia

Chris Froome, the 2013 Tour de France winner, is considering not riding next year's race and instead focusing on the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.

Froome was unable to defend the yellow jersey this year, after two successive crashes force the Team Sky rider to abandon on stage five.

Russian businessman and owner of Tinkoff-Saxo Oleg Tinkov has offered a €1m prize to Froome, Alberto Contado, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana if they compete in all three Grand Tours next season.

However, Froome is likely to reject the challenge after assessing the route for the 2015 Tour.

"The team and I will have to give it some careful consideration before we make any commitments to which of the grand tours I will compete in," he said to his official website after the Tour de France was unveiled on Wednesday.

"I see myself as quite a balanced GC rider and the Giro with it's inclusion of a long TT of 60km and tough uphill finishes will make it a well balance race which suits me well,"

"If I did the Giro I may also be able to get myself back to top shape for the Vuelta and go there with a realistic chance of aiming for the win,".

"In the past I've only targeted one grand tour each season but it could be a good opportunity for me to focus seriously on two. It's still early days though and we'll have to sit down and put our heads together as a team to work out what 2015 is going to look like for us."

But should Froome changes his mind and compete he believes Contador rather than current champion Nibail will be his main rival

"We'll have to see who's going to be there but I think Alberto Contador will be the man to beat,"

"You can never discount the likes of Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali and other GC contenders like Purito (Rodriguez) and Valverde. Alberto is the guy who stands out though.

"He came back after his injury in an amazing way to win the Vuelta España title this year and I expect him to be just as strong next season".