Dan Martin is one of the riders whose eyes lit up when the route for the 2017 Tour de France route was announced earlier in the week. The Irishman is a good climber but does struggle against the likes of Froome, Porte and other pure climbers and doesn’t go well in that many time trials, so the lack of TT kilometres and just three summit finishes.

"It's always hard to tell from a first impression but I think it's going to be a really close race," he told Cyclingnews in Paris. "Especially with that last time trial. There's not that many chances to attack but it's going to be quite an aggressive race because everyone is going to be scared of the last time trial. With this course you need to be aggressive."

The time trial falling on stage 19 helps those who aren’t as good on the TT bike as others, as it comes down more to legs than time trial ability Martin says.

"The lack of TT kilometres makes it different. Having it at the end of the race means that it will come down to legs and not TT ability. By stage 20 everyone will be so tired that it will equalise everyone. Two years ago we saw some really strange results in the time trial so for me it's better at the end and it's also quite short. It definitely means that as a climber, there's less chance of losing a lot of time.”

Martin says the Tour next year is important to him, but he also wants to try and win his first Fleche Wallonne and second Liege-Bastogne-Liege next season.

"The Classics are the first part of the season but seeing that presentation, I've got my appetite for the Tour. Whether my ability in the Classics will suffer a bit because of my improved climbing in the mountains, we'll have to see. Maybe I'm losing that youthful punch in my legs but I love racing and I'm not going to change or just focus on July."