"We will see if we are really ready for Tour" - Tadej Pogacar primed and ready for Suisse but has Tour de France on his mind

Tadej Pogacar is primed and ready to take on his first Tour de Suisse. After a hard training camp, the Tour de France champion is ready to find out if he's in shape for the Grand Boucle next month.

The UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader arrives at the Swiss WorldTour race for the first time, hoping to add another honour to his palmares and fine tune preparations for the Tour de France, where he is favourite ahead of contenders such as Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Paul Seixas.

Approaching the second phase of his season, the Slovenian is rolling with the rhythm of re-finding his grand tour shape, and is well aware that now is the time to find his fitness with the July 4th Grand Depart looming large.

"We've been in training camp with the team, quite hard trainings, just good rhythm every day," Pogacar told Cycling Pro Net. "Now we are here for Tour de Suisse, we will test the legs already tomorrow."

"We will see if we are really ready for Tour or if we need to look for something more in the trainings after the Suisse. Normally, now it should be the moment to be already ready and we will see."

The four-time Tour champion feels good, however, but noted the changed race is a "shame" but is taking the positives and the chance to test his level - with the race concluding two weeks before the Tour.

He continued: "Yes, feelings have been great and I can't complain. It's a bit shame it's not nine days like it used to be, with the classic stages with big mountains.

"It's a bit different but I think it will still be very nice. Nice racing for the legs, for the speed and to test the legs as well. It's also good that it's only five days because then you can recover faster after. We will see how it goes."

With a punchy opening stage, featuring short climbs and a finish that could bring contenders like Mathieu van der Poel into play, Pogacar expects attacks, but hinted it won't be him initiating the moves.

Pogacar looked ahead to the opening stage: "Tomorrow is a hard stage in the final with the short climbs and a lot of guys can do something there. There will probably be a lot of attacking if somebody feels good.

"We have a good team here to follow and maybe we try ourselves something and try to go for the stage even tomorrow."