Chris Froome expressed massive relief to be at the starting line of the 2018 Tour de France just days after being cleared by WADA and the UCI to take part. Tour organisers ASO had decided to ban Froome from the race but the world anti-doping agency and the International Cycling Union delivered a long-awaited verdict on a September 2017 test of the Briton that cleared his name. "Now I just want to draw a line in the sand and move on,” said the four-time champion, who won the Giro d’Italia in May."

"My aim is to win and go for a Tour-Giro double. Doing the Tour de France and the Vuelta [a Espana] last year taught me an amazing amount about how to manage my training and that sort of thing. “But really I can’t make a prediction about how it’s going to go," he added.