2012 winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege Maxime Iglinsky will have a free role at the upcoming classic. Even though the team will protect team leader Vincenzo Nibali, the former champion will have his opportunity.

According to Cyclingnews, the Kazakh said on the Astana press conference that he is in a good shape at the moment, which have been taking a long time.

"It taken a long time to get into top form from the beginning of the season but I'm there now," Iglinskiy told Cyclingnews at Astana's press conference on Friday afternoon.

He is very confident about his role in the game and thinks that he can be an important factor in the classic.

"I've got really good form and I'm in the kind of shape where I can get to the front of a race and be an active participant and make the race for the finale."

He said he has a free role at the race, but ultimately the team leader in the race is Vincenzo Nibali, but he will see how it all will turn out at the end of the race.

"I have a free role right now. When we get towards the finish we'll see how the legs are. If I can go away or make an attack, I'll do it. If I can help, I'll do that too but it's something we'll have to discuss in that sixth hour of racing but Nibali is our leader."

He also looked back on his victory in 2012 and his return to his home country Kazakhstan.

"When I got back they meet me at the airport with television cameras. There were flowers, lots of congratulations and interviews and it was a big deal back home. Alexandre Vinokourov was happy, everything in the team was happy and the cycling federation was very happy."

His first touch with the sport of cycling was at the age of 10 at his school in Kazakhstan.

"He asked if anyone wanted to try bike racing. It was a pretty cool thing because there was a chance of getting a free bike. I got into it, I started to like it and it's always been my dream to be a bike racer. It's been step by step to build this career," he said.

"That first bike though... it was in the 90s and it was a very poor time in that part of the world. I was given this big heavy steel frame by the school but we had to win it in little competitions. So we had a running competition between the kids and whoever won got the frame. But then we had to go out and find wheels and parts so we put the bikes together ourselves. It took about a month before we had a completed bike."

Also, he spent more time on training than studying. Iglinsky went to a boarding school, which didn’t gave him much time with his family.

"I travelled a lot and I went to a boarding school, so I didn't live with my family. I missed the full school and full educational experience. I went to school and studied but I spent more time training and going to training camps."