After a strong opening time trial to the Tour de France where he took time on almost all of the GC candidates, Trek’s leader Bauke Mollema is looking forward to the rest of what he hopes will be a successful race.

“I think that it was a good time trial and I’m happy with the result,” he told Cyclingnews as he warmed down.

“The first part I took a bit easy because of the headwind and then in the second half it was really hard but I felt that I could accelerate in the last few kilometres. It was a good pace.”

“The whole week I’ve been looking forward to this day and to the start. There’s a lot of waiting but now we’ve started, and with a good result. It was a great experience, especially with the Dutch fans out.”

Mollema knows the advantage he has gained is small but he wants any literal and psychological advantage he can get.

“The differences are still quite small so it’s a few seconds here or there but it’s good to start well. You really have to look at it day-by-day but these time gaps will be a lot bigger after the first week.”

He says there are some stages in the first week that suit him in terms of winning a stage but his main aim is to stay safe and upright.

“The third stage to the Mur and then the stage to the Mur de Bretagne suit me but the most important thing is to get through this first week without crashes and problems. It’s important not to lose any time."