Chris Froome has taken a leaf out of Mario Cipollini's book and gotten naked for a photoshoot. The results were very, very different.

Chris Froome naked - talks about his 'sporting body'

He may not be everyone’s cup of tea but Chris Froome surprises every now and then in showing us he actually has a great sense of humour.

And now the double reigning Grand Tour champion has gone all Mario Cipollini in togging off for a photoshoot.

Cipo has gotten his kit off in public several times. But as far as we know, this is Chris Froome’s first time to go full pelt on a bike.

He’s done it for a piece in The Times about his “sporting body”. And from the look on his face, he seemed to enter into the spirit of it.

Chris Froome is on his Pinarello completely naked - wearing nothing but a smile and some road rash on his right hip.

Mario Cipollini in his, erm, stripped down state. He's stripped off lots of times, usually for photos used in advertising campaigns.

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He spoke to The Times’ chief sports writer Matt Dickinson about his body and other aspects of his cycling career (read the full, very interesting, piece by following this link).

“I can recognise the proportions are ridiculous," a probably no longer naked Froome told Dickinson.

"Skinny upper body, massive thighs — I do feel a bit ridiculous looking in the mirror.

“That’s what it takes, but I am looking forward to getting in the gym when I retire and doing some bicep curls, getting some shoulders to balance things out a little.”

He added when he did physiological testing in 2015 is body fat was 9.8 per cent. He was surprised it wasn’t lower and but said it was too risky to go lower. One’s immune system was undermined and blowing from underfueling was a bigger risk.

“A lot of people were shocked to hear I was almost a kilo heavier at the Vuelta than in the Tour de France,” he said.

Naked Chris Froome talks kilos

“(I was) about 68.5kg to 69kg. But I was climbing a lot stronger, my numbers were better.”

He added that in the winter he puts on “six or seven kilos". That happened "once I start eating normally and I’m not training five or six hours a day”.

Froome said Team Sky’s riders did selected days without carbohydrates and said it resulted in “low carb head”.

He explained what that was: “You might have a two-egg omelette, protein for the muscles, but no carbs and, after three, four hours of riding, you can be seriously grumpy. You can’t talk, almost zombified.”