"I will be one of the first to go into action" - Edoardo Affini ready to leave everything on the road for his leader during Tour debut

Edoardo Affini's career is at a high point and that is reflected by the trust he's earned from his team Visma | Lease a Bike. Joining Giro winner Simon Yates and superstar Wout Van Aert, also the Italian will ride a Giro-Tour double as the key man into the chaos of flat stages. And we have seen that already in the echelon-marked stage 1 that Affini is up for the task.

"It's something new for me too," he told bici.pro about doing two Grand Tours in a row. "Last year I did the Giro and the Vuelta but the approach is different, you have more time to prepare and you can take a bit of a break. Instead, this year, as soon as I finished the Giro, I went to altitude in Tignes, and basically my rest was two days."

The European time trial champion therefore seems pretty clear - support GC leader Jonas Vingegaard at all time at flat, and be at hand for Wout Van Aert's if and when he goes for stages. "Basically, support and keep Vingegaard covered as much as possible. If there is a pull, I will be one of the first to go into action. Then we will have to understand what to do if Van Aert wants to try to win some stages. In that case, I think I will be the first one at his side."

And for the 29-year-old, this also happens to be his first Tour de France: "It's a great emotion. Taking part was one of my goals as a rider and I'm happy to be there. I'm curious, it's the biggest race in the world with an incredible media impact. Everyone knows what the Tour de France is. We'll go fast, but even at the Giro we've never gone slow, from this point of view I don't expect huge differences."