Today Warren Barguil led Giant-Alpecin at Fleche Wallonne where he finished 26th, 23 seconds down on the winner Alejandro Valverde. But he rode the race not just for the win, but for a recon of the third stage of this year’s Tour de France, his maiden participation in his Grand Tour.

"I'm really excited because the Tour starts in Holland which is really important for the team and then afterwards we go through Brittany. It's my home and it's really important," Barguil told Cyclingnews. "Everybody has told me that it is completely different. Each year I look at the Tour de France on the TV and soon I will be at the start and I will be able to enjoy this atmosphere."

His team isn’t going to put lots of pressure on the young 23 year old though, as that will be absorbed by star sprinters John Degenkolb and Marcel Kittel.

"The plan is to do it a bit like my first Vuelta, to learn about this Grand Tour, because it is totally different to the Giro or the Vuelta," Barguil explained. "We won't focus on the GC because we will focus on the sprint and I don't have five guys to help me for the GC and in the Tour if you don't have five guys with you then it is not possible.

"If after the first stages I am still up there then I can maybe try for the GC but it's not the goal, that is to learn and if after the first week I'm still here then maybe we will try."

The Frenchman was sent to the Vuelta last year controversially instead of the Tour, where he rode to eighth in GC for the team, who wanted to keep him away from the pressure of the French press. Barguil, unhappy at the decision at the time, know uses hindsight to see how it has helped his development.

"I think in the end it was a better thing," he said. "It was good to do the Vuelta, to be the leader and to understand how to be a leader for three weeks. It's different because every day you have to be at 100 per cent and be careful on everything, sleeping, drinking and recovering. Ok, you might not win but you have to do all of that."

He also rode the cobbles in preparation for stage four of the Tour after tackling the Mur de Huy today, the finish of stage three.

I didn't do all the pavé of the Tour but it was already painful. I did all the sectors full gas to see how I reacted and it was really nice to do it. It was really important because we can't imagine when people say that the pavé is hard you have to feel how it is."