Taco van der Hoorn: "If nothing crazy happens, I'll go to the Tour de France"

Taco van der Hoorn is one of the most popular riders in the peloton, and at 28 years of age he seems set to make his Tour de France after preparing with several of his teammates recently and getting his first win of the season.

“If nothing crazy happens, I'll go to the Tour de France," van der Hoorn told Wielerflits. Unknown to most, the Dutchman was present on an altitude camp in Andorra with several of his Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux teammates who are set to ride the Tour de France. These include Louis Meintjes, Quinten Hermans and Andrea Pasqualon - all with different roles. Surprisingly, three of these four riders have since won races, with Hermans being the one without a win even more surprisingly.

Besides these four riders, Alexander Kristoff is set to race his 11th Grand Tour, as team leader. Three spots will be available, to which Wielerflits understands should be fought between five riders: Kobe Goossens, Adrien Petit, Georg Zimmermann, Sven Erik Bystrom and Simone Petilli.

Despite the modest team expectations are likely to be high after the recent months have seen the Belgian team perform at an incredibly high level - occupying sixth place in the season's World Tour ranking. Van der Hoorn has just came off a dramatic win at the Brussels Cycling Classic proving he's got the form, and will likely be debuting at the Tour de France summer in pursuit of a stage win.