INTERVIEW | Toms Skujins ready for 7th Tour de France - "We will try and shift the team a little bit everyday depending on what the stage is like"

Toms Skujins is a man in form, having won both time-trial and road race national championships in Latvia over the weekend. Lidl-Trek come in with three potential leaders into the Tour de France, and so Skujin shared with CyclingUpToDate what his role will be throughout the three weeks.

This Thursday morning however, the 34-year old was still wearing the standard team jersey, having shared that the new jersey reveal will likely come later today. Surprisingly, it is the first time in four years that the classics specialist will be wearing the jersey in the road races, and the third year he will use it at the Tour.

France however is a good omen for Skujins, specially the finale in Paris. With the addition of the Montmarte circuit, it is now no longer a battle between the sprinters for success on the final day, but instead it is a very open day in which many riders can succeed.

Last year Skujins surprised to a fifth place at the Olympic Games in a race where he was amongst the strongest. It matched his history of having his very best legs in the most important of races - he was also second at Strade Bianche and fourth at the Zurich World Championships.

But whether he can replicate the same performance in the cobbled streets of Montmarte is a question that will have to wait longer. "Honestly I don't know what it's gonna be like, if we're really going to race it, but it's hard to say".

In the first week the team will have it's eyes on protecting Jonathan Milan for the sprints, Mattias Skjelmose's GC ambitions and potentially Thibau Nys' stage-winning ambtiions in some of the hilly days. Logic would have it that in the second half of the race we could see a more active Skujins, but he does not point towards particular stages: "I would like to win any day".

However his role will largely be that of supporting the likes of Skjelmose and Milan who come into the race with strong expectations. "Helping the leaders obviously. Depends on the day, we will try and shift the team a little bit everyday depending on what the stage is like, but for sure I will be involved with both guys".