Michal Kwiatkowski who sensationally won the Worlds title in Ponferrada last year, openly admits that his form is not the best on the eve of the Tour de France.

Two years ago the 25-year-old Pole finished eleventh in the race and was particularly strong in the flat stages. In the mountains he limited his losses to the the best climbers in the world. Last year he was far off the pace

"I would have liked to start in a better shape like the one I had in the first half of the season. Unfortunately, it's different. I used the Tour of Switzerland to slowly get back up to speed after a long break after the classics," Kwiatkowski said, trying to dampen expectations. "Certainly I am not ride for GC. Our goal is to win stages. We are mainly looking at the time trial, the team time trial and the stage on the cobbles," he said.

This year the won the the Amstel Gold Race and was second in Paris-Nice and the Tour of Algarve. "I wanted to win a great classic as the road world champion, in this coveted jersey, and I succeeded. This season the classics had the highest priority," said Kwiatkowski.

However, Kwiatkowski stresses that his team has a major goal.  "We wasnt to have the yellow jersey at least for one day. This would be my dream.

"As for the Grand Depart, it's especially hard to compete against guys like Tony Martin in the time trial. But I think I can do really well if I am able to repeat my condition from the first half of the season.

"I am not sure if I am 100 percent going into this edition of the Tour de France. But of course I did everything I could to be in the best shape possible when I arrived here at this race. Since the Ardennes Classics I focused on Le Tour as my next big objective. I want to do my best tomorrow and see how I feel day-by-day."