Tour de France route good for defending champion Froome

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PARIS (AP) β€” Tour de France organizers have announced a route for the 2016 race that should suit the all-around riding skills of defending champion Chris Froome.

Two individual time trials and 28 tough climbs will be on the schedule in July.

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. That breaks with tradition, because generally the Tour alternates between clockwise and counter-clockwise.

Froome, the British rider who won in 2013 and ’15, is a contender both on climbs and in individual time trials, making him an early favorite for 2016.