Dave Brailsford, head of Team Ineos, supports the return of four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome to the French Grand Tour.

Brailsford warned people not to underestimate Froome's ability to return to the race, which he suffered in a disastrous crash during warm-up for the time trial at the Criterium du Dauphiné in June.

"Chris worked incredibly hard after the crash," he said. He's putting the courage and determination of his seven Grand Tour victories into training so he can be ready for the start of the 2020 Tour."

Froom broke his hip, elbow, femur, sternum, and vertebrae in the crash and underwent extensive surgery to repair his injuries. He then underwent a second surgery in November to remove a metal plate in his hip and a screw in his elbow. [However, recent reports in Bicisport and SpazioCiclismo.com have reported that Dario David Cioni, the sporting director of Team Ineos, is questioning whether Froome can return to his Grand Tour-winning form

However, Froome quickly moved to quash the speculation, clarifying that the training camp he cut off early, which was the basis for the recent reports, took place in December and was not as recent as reported. He will attend another training camp in Gran Canaria this week, and the Team Ineos leader told Gazzetta

that he plans to stay a week longer than his teammates. He and Ineos will do everything in their power to be in top shape by the start of the Tour de France in Nice on Saturday, June 27.

Froome had hoped to add a record-tying fifth yellow jersey to his collection in 2019, but Dauphin's crash cost him the season, and young Colombian and Ineos teammate Egan Bernal, also of Team Ineos paved the way for him to grab the race ahead of defending champion Geraint Thomas.

In a tweet posted on Sunday, Froome fired back at suggestions that his recovery was not going well.

"Last time I was in training camp was at the beginning of December. His recovery is going well and he heads to his next training camp on Thursday." Previous "