Team Giant-Shimano head into the Tour de Suisse with a two-pronged approach. John Degenkolb will target the sprint stages and can count on the support of recent Giro stage winner Luka Mezgec while Warren Barguil will focus on the GC.

Just as the Critérium du Dauphiné is coming to an end, the nine day Tour de Suisse gets going. The race gets underway with a tough hilly individual time trial before getting straight into the mountains on the first road stage on Sunday. The following stages present different opportunities for the team including sprints, breakaways and another effort against the clock.

Tom Dumoulin comes to the Tour de Suisse following a second place at the recent Tour of Belgium and he will have a keen eye on the two individual time trial stages.

John Degenkolb also gets back into racing here in Switzerland with a focus on getting back up to speed after some high altitude training, and with the sprint stages in his cross hairs.

Warren Baruil will be seeing how he can fare in the high mountains and as a result seeing how he well he can place in the overall classification by the end of the race.

Team Giant-Shimano coach Addy Engels confirmed the goals for the Tour de Suisse, saying: "We have two main goals for this race, to get a nice GC placing with Warren and to target the sprint opportunities.

"There are no real flat stages but there are opportunities for sprints on days where there are just a few short climbs so we will look to take our chances where we can. John returns to racing from a period at altitude and he will look to get back up to speed here, but we also have Luka who showed at the end of the Giro that he still has something left in the tank.

"Warren has shown already this season that he can race well on the toughest of climbs against the world's best climbers and hopefully he can perform well again here in Switzerland."

Several of the riders gearing up for the Tour de Suisse are in action this Thursday at the GP du Canton d'Argovie in Switzerland.

After taking second place on Saturday's Ronde van Zeeland Seaports Ramon Sinkeldam comes into this race together with Giro d'Italia stage winner Luka Mezgec to give Team Giant-Shimano different sprint options, although the tough parcours may prove too much for both these riders.

Tobias Ludvigsson also returns to racing after his big fall at the Giro and he'll be seeing how his body reacts to hard efforts again.

Other riders coming from the Giro include Simon Geschke and Georg Preidler, with the team completed by Lawson Craddock, Koen De Kort and Sea Keong Loh.

The 181km parcours is based on a 12km circuit with a hill each lap that although not too steep it will take its toll on the peloton over the course of the race.

"For this race at Gippengen we hope to see Simon and Georg with the shape they built during the Giro," said Team Giant-Shimano coach Addy Engels.

"If the guys have come out of the Giro with good legs then we can hope for a good result here. Tobias also returns to racing which is good for him. He will not have any pressure or expectations and we can just let him find his rhythm again."

Giant-Shimano for the Tour de Suisse:

Warren Barguil (FRA)
Lawson Craddock (USA)
John Degenkolb (GER)
Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Koen De Kort (NED)
Luka Mezgec (SLO)
Georg Preidler (AUT)
Ramon Sinkeldam (NED)

Giant-Shimano for GP Gippingen:

Lawson Craddock (USA)
Simon Geschke (GER)
Koen De Kort (NED)
Sea Keong Loh (MAL)
Tobias Ludvigsson (SWE)
Luka Mezgec (SLO)
Georg Preidler (AUT)
Ramon Sinkeldam (NED)