Adam Hansen has headed to Yorkshire to prepare himself to embark on his ninth consecutive Grand Tour. He has two aims at the Tour: help Andre Greipel in the sprints and Jurgen Van Den Broeck in the GC.

Should he finish the Tour and the Vuelta, he would draw level on 10 straight three week races with two Spaniards, Marino Lejaretta and Bernardo Ruiz.

"I've come off well from the Giro [finishing 73rd], I feel very happy with that, I got a lot of rest, and then started re-building my form towards the Tour," Hansen told Cyclingnews.

"I think Van Den Broeck will be in great form, we could see that in the [Criterium du] Dauphiné, [where Van den Broeck took third, his best WorldTour placing since the Volta a Catalunya in 2012 - ed.]"

"He was back in good form, very excited. Last year was a bad Tour for us, we only had one win whereas the year before we won three stages [all with Greipel - ed.]. This time I want to help Van Den Broeck, to see if he gets on the podium and I can be part of that."

Lotto’s GC man is in good shape after the Dauphine and Hansen has faith that his teammate can deliver once more in the biggest race in the world for the Belgian team that could really do with a strong result.

“You're only ever as good as your last race, and he's climbing really well. In the Tour he's had a lot of ups and downs, crashes and so on, and I think that mentally it has affected him a lot. You could see that in Tirreno-Adriatico, he was struggling hard there because of a crash.”

"He needed a result to be on the ball again. He definitely trains hard enough, he's focused enough, but the Dauphine has given him the reminder that he's good enough, too. And he's going to be twice as good at the Tour."

Hansen knows all there is to know about Grand Tours but he has never raced in England before, making this Grand Tour a more exciting prospect for the 33 year old based in the Czech Republic. Whatever the racing is like, he has got the legs and he has done the training to put that Grand Tour record well within his grasp by the end of this year.