22-year-old British rider Harrison Wood is currently making his Critérium du Dauphiné debut as part of the Cofidis team. Wood hopes a good performance in the race will be pathway to living his Tour de France dream.
"The fact that I'm here and I'm racing it, and they've put their trust in me gives me a slight chance," Wood tells BBC Sport of the likelihood of him getting a Tour de France ride. "If I do well this week then normally I should ride it. If I do well, if I'm up there, there's no reason I wouldn't. But it's my first year as a pro cyclist so sometimes the teams prefer to put you in the Giro in Italy or the Vuelta in Spain, the other two Grand Tours, to get you to learn because the Tour's really stressful."
In a year that has already been full of landmarks for Wood, the Torquay cyclist has raced at a number of big races such as Milano-Sanremo, Strade Bianche and the Tour Down Under. Adding the Critérium du Dauphiné to his list is another race checked off but the Tour de France remains the big goal.
"That for me is my big dream, to be able to ride the Tour de France, it would just be amazing to do it," he reiterates. "It's still early days in my career, but I'd like to win a stage or something like that. I'm not going to beat around the bush and say 'I don't really know, I want to learn' because everybody at some point has got to be a bit bullish and say what they think."
"For me to win a stage would be amazing, that's going to be very hard, but I'm all in for it," he continues. "I think we've got a really nice team and a good team who support those ambitions of trying for a stage win, so why not give it a go and see what happens?"
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