Speaking at the pre-race press conference for the Tour of Oman, BMC’s Richie Porte spoke of his excitement at being allowed to target the GC at the Tour de France.

“When you go to a team and you are co-leader, with Tejay, it's not like being in Team Sky when you are going in with Chris Froome who is, rightly so, the outright leader,” Porte said. “It's a little bit more pressure [being a leader] I suppose, but I've never been able to target the Tour de France in July, so it's quite exciting.”

Once he returns to Europe, he will train a lot with his co-leader for the Tour, van Garderen, saying the two have become friends.

“We've done a fair bit of riding together in the off-season, there's no problems. We’re on the same page, and he's quite a good friend now as well,” Porte said. “I'll be doing quite a bit of training with him when we are back together in Nice. We are on the same race programme until the Tour de France other than here, we are only going to get closer and learn how to ride together.”