Luka Mezgec says he is enjoying being at Orica-GreenEDGE, where fans have quickly seen the funny side of the Slovenian in their Backstage Pass videos. On the road, he says the team’s task for him is different to what he normally does, but he is relishing it all the same.

“I don’t know. It’s different. The public and fans from Orica know me now when they probably didn’t know me at Giant. When you are changing teams you always find some new supporters,” Mezgec told VeloNews.

The 27 year old spoke about how Giant-Alpecin used to bring whole teams to Grand Tours for the sprints, whereas Orica’s sprinter Caleb Ewan only really has Mezgec, Sam Bewley and Michcael Hepburn.

“It is a little bit different than with Giant where we had five or six guys to do a proper lead out train,” said Mezgec. “Here we are working with myself Caleb and one or two guys max … that’s a little different. We have to rely on other teams, and just try to position ourselves out of the wind and wait for the final.”

Mezgec says despite his role as leadout man, he may get opportunities to sprint for himself as the race progresses on any hard sprint days Ewan can’t hang with.

“The first the goal is Caleb; but if there is a hilly stage where Caleb cannot be in the contention, if I am there I can go for my own result,” said Mezgec who “definitely” wants to reach the finish of his fifth grand tour in Torino on May 29.