Sierk Jan de Haan looks forward to Coppi e Bartali. "We'll be riding with young riders and an experienced road captain."

"The race contains an individual time trial, a team time trial and there'ss a stage with many altitude metres, so there's a lot of diversity. We'll have some riders with us who can ride uphill very well and there's a time trial that suits them. They will have to be alert with the ranking in mind."

In this race, Daan Olivier will make his comeback after a heavy crash in Australia. The opening stage this morning is won by Pascal Eenkhoorn. The Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider is also the first leader in the general classification.