Jayco AlUla optimistic about Dylan Groenewegen's chances at Tour de France: "We have every confidence in Dylan. In my opinion he is still one of the best sprinters in the world"

Team Jayco AlUla will probably play two cards at Tour de France. While Simon Yates should focus the general classification (or stages), Dylan Groenewegen is their choice for sprints. And it appears so the team still puts a lot of faith in the Dutchman with a large group of riders for the flats.

Sports director Tristan Hoffman looks back at the 30-year-old's season so far in an interview with In de Leiderstrui: "Dylan was quite close to victory in a number of sprints. Sure, the goal is to win. But Dylan certainly competed well, including in the Belgian sprint classics: second, third... It was quite good, although unfortunately we narrowly missed the victory. However, the competition between the sprinters is also enormous. That doesn't exactly make winning easy, haha! He was also close in Hungary. Fortunately, he eventually managed to take that much-desired victory in the Volta Limburg. That was really a relief!"

Groenewegen will probably have three to four riders in his lead-out at Grande Boucle. "That's one thing for sure," Hoffman agrees. "The ultimate goal of the team and of Dylan is to win at least one stage. That is certainly the ambition. There are 21 stages, but if you look at the quality of the starting field and the number of chances for a sprint, I think you can be very satisfied with at least one stage victory. Then you just did it right. But you know how it is: once you win one, you still want one! But let's not get too eager yet," he laughed. "We have every confidence in Dylan. In my opinion he is still one of the best sprinters in the world."

Teammate Jan Maas also expects a lot from Groenewegen at the Tour. "We won in Limburg with Dylan. That gave the team a big confidence boost, especially towards that Tour. I also think he will be good. As always, he is very motivated for a victory. I think that's certainly part of it, because he rides well. I guess we can expect a lot from him, for sure. Do we have a lot of contact? Meh. That in itself is not too bad, although within the team it is of course nice to have Dutch people together. With Elmar there, it's always fun. We have such a nice group."