Dumoulin has already notched time trial wins in the Giro and the Vuelta and victory this Friday would make his collection of grand tour time trial wins complete. It is also a good practice ride ahead of a difficult time trial at the Olympic Games in Rio next month.

The bumpy route from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-d’Arc should go well with Dumoulin, but he believes that it is not undulating enough to take some of the time trial specialists out of the equation for victory.

“Normally it would but so hilly that guys like Tony Martin, Rohan Dennis and Cancellara are out of contention. It can be good also for them but the hillier the better for me definitely,” Dumoulin told Cyclingnews. “I have only seen [the course] on a video but it looks hard, and it looks promising for me.”

Dumoulin has repeatedly stated that he is not targeting overall success at the grand tours this season and is focused on the Olympic Games in Rio. However, he already has one stage win to his name at this year’s Tour de France after attacking his breakaway companions in the finale of stage 9 to Andorra. On Friday he will be looking to add to his tally.

“I feel good. I’m pretty confident for the coming days and weeks,” said Dumoulin, adding: “I will try to save myself a little bit before the time trial.”

On yesterday’s wind-shortened stage to Mont Ventoux Dumoulin followed a laid back approach as he crossed the finish line 21 minutes behind the winner, Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal).

Things remain unresolved at the top in the overall classification, but Dumoulin expects that to alter by close of Friday’s ITT.

“It’s very close together so far, with really hard days in the Pyrenees. You will definitely see some tired legs and some differences after the TT,” Dumoulin explained. “It’s nice to have a little advantage going into the Alps but I can imagine that Quintana will be a little bit further behind Froome, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t win anymore. It will be an exciting last week.”