Telegraph
Chris Froome has confirmed that he will not be defending his Giro d’Italia crown in 2019, and will focus instead on trying to beat all comers, including Sky team mate Geraint Thomas, at the Tour de France. Colombian Egan Bernal, 21, will lead Sky at the Giro instead.
Froome, 33, is aiming to become only the fifth rider in history to win five Tours after Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles for doping.
It promises to be a fascinating battle between the two Sky riders this summer. Thomas, 32, won the maillot jaune for the first time in 2018 and says he expects equal treatment from the start this year after Froome was prioritised by Team Sky in the first half of the 2018 race.
The Welsh rider has clearly grown in confidence and stature since beating Froome into third place in that race.
Froome, though, can legitimately argue that he was below par at last year’s Tour having ridden a tough Giro just a few weeks earlier.
Froome won that Giro thanks to a stunning 80km solo break on stage 19, which turned the race completely on its head. But his exertions clearly caught up with him.
He said it was a "difficult decision" to skip the Giro, but an obvious one given his Tour ambitions.
"I've got some amazing memories from last year, but I think, with the Tour de France as my main objective, it's probably better that I skip the Giro d'Italia in 2019," Froome said. "I'm getting to the point in my career now where I'm starting to think about what kind of legacy I want to leave behind and if I am able to win the Tour de France for a fifth time and join that very elite group of bike riders - only four other people have ever done that - it would just be incredible."
Thomas, who will also target the world time trial championship in Yorkshire in September, said there was no way he could skip this year’s Tour despite a favourable, time trial-heavy Giro route.
"Maybe if I hadn't have won the Tour in 2018 I might have looked at a Giro/Vuelta programme but, having won the Tour, I'll have the number one on my back and it would be sad not to go back and not to go back at 100 per cent as well,” he said.
