Top names gather in Catalonia to set Chris Froome a challenge

Froome can count on strong support from Sky for the seven-day, 1,219km stage race

Chris Froome faces a strong field in Spain (Getty)

This small coastal town sees Chris Froome line up for the Tour of Catalonia today, a week-long race that arguably represents the toughest stage racing challenge of the Briton’s entire season, bar the Tour de France.

Two tough stages in the Pyrenees, including a 19km ascent to the summit finish of Port Ainé on Thursday, would be daunting enough so early in the season. But it is the formidable line-up of opponents in Catalonia that could represent the biggest threat to Froome’s chances of success.

The winners of cycling’s other two Grand Tours in 2015, Giro d’Italia champion Alberto Contador and Vuelta a España star Fabio Aru, are perhaps the two stand-out rivals to Tour winner Froome. Double Tour de France runner-up Nairo Quintana – who gave Froome a real run for his money on Alpe d’Huez last year – could be another threat in the mountains.

Froome will also have his long-time Sky team-mate Richie Porte – a skilled climber, now racing for BMC, who won the Tour of Catalonia last year – to handle as a rival, as well as Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran, twice runner-up in the Giro d’Italia.

Pint-sized Catalan climber Joaquim Rodriguez, a double summit finish winner in the Tour last year, is always strong on home soil, while Ireland’s Dan Martin, American Tejay Van Garderen and young Russian challenger Ilnur Zakarin are all potential challengers.

On the plus side, Froome, already the winner of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia this year, can count on strong support from Sky for the seven-day, 1,219km stage race, his first event at World Tour level – cycling’s top league – and first in Europe of 2016.

Paris-Nice winner Geraint Thomas, as well as the core of those Sky riders who helped the Welshman take his greatest road success last week, including the recent Milano-Sanremo runner-up Ben Swift, will be present.

Sky’s management team are in an upbeat mood about Froome’s chances, despite such a strong field and even though his best performance in Catalonia, Spain’s third biggest stage race, was sixth overall in 2014. “He will focus to win the race,” Sky’s sports director Nicolas Portal told specialist website VeloNews last week.

With no individual time trial, after today’s hilly out-and-back circuit to Calella, the race itself will almost certainly be decided by Thursday’s mammoth stage through the Pyrenees, which features four classified climbs plus the long ascent to Port Ainé.

Three inevitably nervous stages then follow, culminating on Sunday in eight laps of a short but very hilly circuit around Montjuic Park in central Barcelona.