Simon Yates has told Sky Sports Cycling that he is riding the Criterium du Dauphine as a warm up before the main goal of his season, the Tour de France. After spending two weeks at altitude in Andorra, he says he is raring to go and looking forward to pinning on a number once more.

“I’ve spent the past two weeks training at altitude in Andorra and while it has been a pleasant enough fortnight, I would much prefer to be in the thick of the peloton.”

“The numbers I was producing at the camp were encouraging and I feel really strong coming out of it, but the Dauphine is very much a no-pressure race for me because I’m using it solely as preparation for the Tour de France next month.”

He says the Dauphine acts as a final tune up ahead of the Tour and one last chance to compare himself to the other Tour favourites.

“The main priority is to fine-tune my condition and improve my race sharpness ahead of the Tour, which is my primary goal for the season and a race I really want to get right.”

After the recent Tours of the Basque Country and Romandie, the young Orica-GreenEdge man has the confidence that he belongs with the big boys of the peloton.

“As well as physically, I’m feeling good mentally as well at the moment after really pleasing results in my past two stage races. I finished fifth overall at the Tour of the Basque Country in Spain and then sixth overall at the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland.”

“A lot of the top guys were at those races, and to be going wheel to wheel with the likes of Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana was nice.”

He says he doesn’t see himself getting a similar result at the Dauphine due to the way he is heading into it but he will look to do as well as possible.

He also wants to stay away from GC contention in the Tour de France, opting to join more breakaways and go stage hunting instead.

“The plan is to go there, get in some breakaways and hopefully try to get a stage win, although that is far easier said than done because making it into a breakaway is an achievement in itself, let alone going on to win the stage.”

“I definitely won’t be racing for the general classification. That’s not on the radar at all. In fact, I will probably lose time on purpose on certain stages in order to save energy for others.”

“My other big ambition at the Tour is to finish the race and ride into Paris. I missed out last year due to illness, so hopefully I can stay healthy this time and experience what it’s like to ride down the Champs-Elysees.”