Chris Froome spoke on Thursday (June 30th) about his chances of successfully defending his Tour de France crown, and discussed his new approach to preparing for the race.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Chris Froome, Team Sky (on preparations?):

"My wife and I have just had our first son. So, personally it has been good for me to spend a little bit more time at home this year, ease into the racing. But it has been...I feel it has been good for me to change it up a bit. To have a bit of a different focus and almost just trust, trust in the training, that I have been doing, obviously closely with (Team Sky's head of athlete development) Tim Kerrison, that I would reach this point in my best condition, even if I hadn't been winning races since February. So it has been quite different. But I'm ready. I feel glad that we did take that approach and hopefully that is going to carry me better into the third week of this race. That for me is something that I have made a little personal goal for this year's Tour de France is to be stronger than I have been in the past in the third week of this year's edition."