Thibaut Pinot will try to improve on last year's third place at the Tour de France and will line up at the race with the full FDJ team in support. Sprinter Arnaud Demare will only get his chance when Pinot is safe.

"The team will focus primarily on Pinot and only if there are opportunities in sprints will some of the guys get behind Demare," manager Marc Madiot said at the press conference. "I can assure you that there will definitely be no FDJ riders taking off at kilometre zero with the aim of getting into a breakaway."

"We'll see after the first third of the race how things have gone. We hope to be in the fight for the GC, we're also hoping for a stage victory, but that will depend on the weather conditions. We'll have to take things day-by-day and see how we cope with the various obstacles.

"We need to keep all of the riders as fresh as possible for the team time trial, which is why we won't be asking riders to try to get into breaks. We've improved a lot in the team time trial, and we need to take advantage of that improvement."

"I'll support Thibaut in whatever way I can, but if I get some opportunities to try something for myself I will be ready," Demare said to underline his role. I feel more relaxed coming into this year's Tour than last year's, which was my first and where I had the added weight of wearing the French champion's jersey and then being hindered by an early crash."

Pinot is confident in his chances but knows that he needs to get safely to the mountains before he can shine.

"I finished fourth in Tirreno, Romandie and Switzerland. but the Tour de France is a different kettle of fish. I've got a lot of ambition, but I can only contemplate bigger ambitions after the first week," he said.

"You have to judge very carefully the risks you take during the first week, especially as there are 30 riders here who want a top 10 finish. But after the first week it could be that as many as 10 of those will be out of the race without even seeing the Pyrenees."