Michael Storer's teammates are fully devoted to his GC quest at Giro: "You saw him ride at Tour of the Alps, that gives us a lot of confidence"

Tudor Pro Cycling is finishing final touches with view to their second Giro d'Italia participation. However they'll have to make do without their star sprinter Arvid de Kleijn who is still recovering from injury earlier this season. While it's a big damage to Tudor's fine-tuned sprint train, it's also opportunity for men like Rick Pluimers.

"We will definitely miss Arvid de Kleijn, who was originally supposed to be part of the team," said Pluimers to IDLProCycling. "I think it just means we each move up one spot, similar to what happened at Tirreno-Adriatico. Maikel [Zijlaard] can go for his chances in the flatter stages and I will get my shot in the harder ones that end in a sprint."

Besides bunch arrivals, we can also expect the dark jerseys of Tudor to fly high in the mountains thanks to Michael Storer. The Australian showed up at Tour of the Alps in an exclusive form, winning a stage as well as general classification. If he can maintain such level until the end of May, another top-10 at a Grand Tour could be within his reach.

"With Michael Storer we also have someone who can go for the general classification, so I think we will have a goal every day. I was on the altitude camp with Michael and he is a very calm guy. Just a good person to have around. And if you look at what he did at the Tour of the Alps, that gives us a lot of confidence," Pluimers said.

He'll also have a decent support from purer climbers, so Pluimers can fully devote himself to tasks on flat parts. "But it does give us daily motivation. Last year Michael also went to the Giro without a plan to ride for GC and still ended up in the top ten. That is something he is absolutely capable of doing again."