Sunweb's Tour de France director Tom Veelers said while the team's ambitions will be centred on the GC, he is not expecting too much from its first proper assault on the overall classification.
"With the ambitions we have at the Tour we’ve selected the strongest possible configuration of qualities and riders.
"Whilst taking the first careful steps towards our future Tour de France GC ambitions, with the importance of learning and gaining experience this year, we’ll also go for day results on the uphill sprints.
"We want to get through that process with Tom this year without any pressure on results"
In-form Wilco Keldermann was a last minute omission after sustaining a shoulder injury at his national road race championships (Dutch) on the weekend. Chad Haga and Laurens Ten Dam will back up from the Giro.
"Losing Wilco to a re-injured shoulder will be a big loss for us in the team time trial and the mountain stages, but we have Laurens ten Dam to replace him, whose Grand Tour experience is extremely extensive and will be very valuable.
“Primarily everyone’s responsibility is to keep Tom safe during each stage. Alongside Laurens, we have Chad, Søren, Michael and Simon as the guys to help out on the medium to difficult stages and Edward and Nikias on the flat stages.
"We’ve never been to the Tour de France with a GC focus and it will be a completely new experience for us and a long-term challenge that we are looking forward to.
"We want to get through that process with Tom this year without any pressure on results, creating the foundations to build on in the years to come. The parcours provide the perfect platform for an exciting race, and after achieving this year’s GC goal of a podium at the Giro, we’re very motivated to head to France and look forward to seeing what it brings this year.”
