As Richie Porte prepares to take on his former team-mate Chris Froome in the Tour de France, he has claimed Team Sky, where he worked with the Englishman for four seasons, are “not as strong as they used to be”.

Porte also stated that the British team have been over-egging the pudding when they suggested he is favourite to win the 2017 Tour. “I think it’s just one of the games they play,” said the BMC rider, who rode for Team Sky from 2012 to 2015. “Behind closed doors they think they’ve got the guy to do it; I mean he’s got the track record but Chris is obviously the one with the biggest target on his back.

“Chris has won three Tours and there’s no reason he can’t win a fourth,” the 32-year-old Australian added. “You know, he’s the big favourite here. He’s going to be in a lot better form than he was in the Critérium du Dauphiné.”

This year Porte has won the Tour Down Under and Tour de Romandie and came close to winning the Dauphiné, while Froome is without a victory in 2017.

Porte expects this year’s Tour to be a free for all, owing to the radically designed route, with only two mountain-top finishes of any length – a third, at Planche des Belles Filles on stage five, is extremely steep but not hugely long – and a reduced amount of time-trialling.

His fifth place in last year’s Tour came after he lost 1min 59sec as early as stage two in Cherbourg, owing to a poor wheel change after a puncture at a crucial moment.

This year, Porte conceded, he and the team have practised puncture drill in training in order to ensure they have every base covered.

There has been speculation over the future of BMC, run by a Swiss bike company and managed by the American Jim Ochowicz, but Porte has confirmed he will race with the squad into 2018.