MILAN – Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome confirmed on Wednesday he will race in next year’s Giro d’Italia, the only one of three Grand Tours he has yet to win.
“Ciao (hello) everyone, I’m looking forward to seeing you all on the start line of the 2018 Giro d’Italia,” Froome said in a short video message played during the 2018 route presentation ceremony in Milan.
The Briton claimed his maiden Vuelta a Espana title in September to become just the third rider, after Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Bernard Hinault (1978), to win the Tour and Vuelta in the same year.
Froome is attempting to become just the seventh man to win all three Grand Tours. He would be only the third cyclist in history to hold all three titles at the same time were he to win next year’s Giro.
The 32-year-old will also try to become the first rider since the late Marco Pantani in 1998 to achieve an audacious Giro and Tour double in the same season.
The 101st edition of the Giro will be the first Grand Tour to start outside of Europe, as it begins in Jerusalem on May 4 with the first three stages to be held in Israel.