Colombian Julian Arredondo will be making his Tour de France debut. The Trek Factory Team rider explained according to Cyclingnews that his role will be to assist Dutch leader Bauke Mollema in his push for a top five finish.

"I feel like I'm on the up and I'm going into the race with the aim of trying to win a stage and helping Bauke as much as I can with his goal of finishing in the top five on GC", the 27-year-old rider said. "We will have a certain amount of freedom to go looking for stage wins and, as far as I'm concerned, my goal is to win a stage and perhaps on the back of that get myself into the contest for the King of the Mountains jersey."

"The route certainly suits me. This year's there's hardly any time trialling and there's no doubt that this Tour has got a lot more mountains than any we've seen for some years. The Colombian riders are almost certain to be right in the heart of the action in the mountains. I think we will all be targeting stage wins."

About the yellow jersey, his compatriot Nairo Quintana will be one of the favorite. "There's no doubt that Nairo is one of the clear favourites for the title. He looks in pretty good shape and very fresh to me. I think Colombian fans can count on Nairo."

This year, Arredondo finished 8th overall at Critérium International. Last year, he won the mountains classification at Giro d’Italia, his first three-week race.