Nairo Quintana (Movistar) has named Chris Froome as the favourite to win the Tour de France but said that missing out on Giro d´Italia victory has not affected his morale ahead of La Grande Boucle. Quintana has placed on the podium in all three of his Tour appearances to date, but on each occasion - in 2013, 2015 and 2016 - Froome has won the race overall. Although Froome has failed to land a win so far this season and was short of his best at the recent Critérium du Dauphiné, Quintana has anointed him as the man to beat next month. `To me, Froome still looks like the big favourite. He always approaches the Tour perfectly, it`s a race he´s been brilliant at in the past, and I´m sure he´ll be at 100 per cent condition in July,` Quintana said.ADVERTISEMENT In a lengthy interview released by his Movistar team, Quintana also namechecked Richie Porte (BMC) - `he´s shown great abilities that make him a strong contender` - Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) as contenders, together with the Orica-Scott duo of Simon Yates and Esteban Chaves, and Astana´s pairing of Fabio Aru and Jakob Fuglsang. `As I said before, the Giro and the [Tom] Dumoulin success, there´s always some sort of surprise, riders you don´t count on to get a result and end up contesting the GC,` said Quintana, who will have another contender alongside him on the Movstar team, in the shape of Alejandro Valverde. `His immense strength creates a serious threat to the other rivals, who fear what he can achieve,` Quintana said. `It makes you so calm to have him on your team.` No Giro-Tour regrets The Tour route
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