The Spanish media are reporting that Mikel Landa looks likely to be one of Chris Froome‘s key helpers at next month’s Tour de France.

The rider impressed the Team Sky management in the final week of the Giro d’Italia when he transformed his ails from the opening two weeks to win the mountains jersey, take a stage win and three further podium finishes.

Landa, recruited from Astana after the 2015 season in which he came third at the Giro, played a crucial role in Froome’s third Tour victory last year.

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It appears that Sky are weighing up their options and the inclusion of Landa is looking more likely than it was before the Giro, AS, the Spanish newspaper, reports.

With Froome lacking in form – he hasn’t won a race all year – having a collection of the strongest climbers in the world as his domestiques could be more pivotal than ever in his Tour quest.

AS quote Landa as saying: “I still do not know, there is nothing certain at this point.”

Should Landa ride the Tour, it makes it unlikely that he will compete at the Vuelta a España, his home Grand Tour that he last raced in 2015.

Landa went into the Giro as Sky’s co-leader alongside Geraint Thomas, but a crash on stage nine caused by a police motorbike ruined his general classification chances. He, unlike Thomas, though, continued through to the race’s end in Milan.