Tour de France route good for defending champion Froome (The Associated Press)
Chris Froome likes his chances of defending his Tour de France title on a route that plays to his all-around riding skills. The 3,519-kilometer (2,186-mile) trek will scale the Pyrenees before the Alps, just as the Tour did this year, again going counter-clockwise around France. Froome was the stage winner when the Tour last scaled its barren, 1,909-meter (6,263-foot) peak in 2013 and is eyeing that stage again for another victory next year.