Video: Chris Froome on a mission to return to race weight

In his most recent Youtube video, Chris Froome has talked about the struggles he's faced upon returning to racing. The Briton has had his season delayed due to a knee injury during the winter, and has had difficulties at the recent Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.

He's talked about the experience in the Italian race: “That was a pretty rude welcome back, to put it bluntly, it was like an Ardennes day, a pretty brutal way to start racing five months out. I was happy to be there. This is great preparation for what’s to come and the next races that are going to be on the program."

“The body’s taken a beating. That was quite tough, and it was not quite what I was expecting in the first race back. I don’t want to say it’s lower-level racing, not exactly World Tour kind of event, but to be honest, it was full-gas every day," he explained. "There are no races you can go to these days and get around under the radar.”

He's explained that he was at the time 2Kgs above his ideal race weight and that the plan for the weeks before the Tour of the Alps would be to shed some of it: “It’s a balance between the weight when I am fresh I need to take advantage of that, and when I have the energy, I have to get the quality work in, and at the end the day I continue with a negative calorie deficit to lose some of that weight."

Froome will be at the upcoming Tour of the Alps, and although it is not certain he is also pinned out to be at the Tour de Romandie in the days after.