Chris Froome setting sights on Rio and more Tour glory

By Julien Pretot MORZINE, France (Reuters) - With a third Tour de France title virtually secured on Saturday, Britain's Chris Froome quickly set his sights toward more glory on the French roads via Rio de Janeiro. Froome, who won the race in 2013 and 2015, is poised to be crowned Tour champion again after Sunday's largely processional ride from Chantilly to the Champs Elysees in Paris before taking part in the Rio Olympics and maybe the Tour of Spain in August. The Vuelta, and the other grand tour race, the Giro d'Italia, are not really on the Team Sky rider's radar even if only six men have managed to win all three of them. "For now my focus is on the Tour de France, given it's such a special race," he said after the 20th stage, a 146.5-km mountain trek from Megeve won by Spain's Ion Izagirre. "It would be my dream to keep coming back to the Tour for the next five to six years if I can and give it my best shot. I hope I can do that next year. "I might do the Vuelta this year but with my focus on the Tour it's difficult to commit to the Giro," he added at a news conference. On Sunday, Froome will join Belgium's Philippe Thys, American Greg LeMond and France's Louison Bobet on the list of triple winners. Ahead of them are five-times champions Miguel Indurain of Spain, Belgian great Eddy Merckx plus Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil. Before training again with the 2017 Tour in mind, Froome will take part in the Rio Olympics where he will be among the favorites for the road race and the time trial -- an event he decided to contest six months ago. "It's a course that suits me well, I took bronze in London in the last Olympics and it would be incredible to medal again this year," he said, referring to the time trial. In 2012, Froome finished third behind fellow Briton Bradley Wiggins and German Tony Martin, and his time trial performances on the Tour -- second and first -- suggest he could be a contender on Aug. 10. On his way to Rio, Froome will take part in the RideLondon classic on July 31. "Now a bit of recovery after this race. It looks like next weekend we're going to London for the one-day race before we fly to Rio and then we will start training a bit more again," he said. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris)