Even though BMC’s Tejay van Garderen recently won the Tour of California thus taking his first overall stage race win as a WorldTour rider, he was cautious to rank himself among the favourites at the Tour de Suisse which kicks off today when Cyclingquotes spoke to him yesterday.

Van Garderen would only limit himself to saying that he is aiming for a high placing. "I definitely would like to get a good result here. It would be a nice race to pick up a result or even a win, but it's also kind of final preparation for the Tour de France," he said. "I haven't looked at the start list, but there's going to be some good riders here. I rode the Tour de Suisse back in 2011 but obviously I’m in a different position now."

Van Garderen acknowledged that his win in California had eased the pressure on himself and the team to deliver results, but that the win hasn't changed much for neither him nor the team. "You have to move past the win and start focusing on the next race because it comes up quickly but my win in California means that we can take an easier approach to the race here in Switzerland."

While aiming to perform well in the Tour de France overall classification, van Garderen said that defending the best young rider's jersey was still an option that would be open to him, but that getting a win for BMC was the priority over all - and if that means working for someone else, he will do it.

"It's obviously more important if we can have someone from BMC win the race than to get a couple high places on GC. If it comes down to me helping Cadel [Evans] in the mountains, then I'm happy with that."

Debate still lingers among experts over which BMC rider will lead the team in the Tour de France, and van Garderen doesn’t plan to be caught off guard.

"I'm going to show up to the Tour with the best form possible - you can never predict what's going to happen on the road. Cadel could get the legs he had in 2011 back, and if he has that, I'm more than happy to help him win. If he shows that he's tired from the Giro or his illness resurfaces, I think BMC are happy to maybe have another card to play with me," he said.

Winning the Tour de France would mean dissolving the utter Sky domination witnessed at the Tour last year. Van Garderen acknowledged that it would be a tremendous task. “Of course it’s going to be difficult because Sky is such a strong team,” van Garderen said.

One way of trying to unhinge the Sky team is a two-pronged strategy if both van Garderen and Cadel Evans are in contention for the overall win. "You saw that in 2011 when the Schlecks were trying to beat Cadel, Andy went up the road and Frank was sitting on Cadel's wheel, and Cadel was forced to chase. We could try a tactic like that. It would be a little easier to play with tactics if you have two rather than one."

“Chris Froome (Sky) and Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) are definitely the two big favourites for the Tour de France, and hopefully Cadel will be right up there with them. I’m a notch below these riders together with Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Jürgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol).”

Having won the white jersey at the Tour de France last year and the Tour of California in May van Garderen may be more closely watched by his rivals but he is unperturbed by such an addition of attention.

“I really can’t do anything about that anyway. I’m just trying to work on being more relaxed as a rider. I believe it’s something that comes with maturity. Besides, Cadel’s presence helps me a lot. Him being there removes the pressure from me. Cadel has the weight of the world on his shoulders because he is the main man.”

The recent extension of his contract with the BMC team also added to van Garderen’s tranquillity.

"The team shows a lot of long-term interest in me, they've extended my contract through 2016," he continued. "The team wants me to win the Tour eventually. I don't know if I'm ready to do that this year, but hopefully I will get the opportunity to fight for a high GC placing."

Unlike many of his rivals van Garderen has done any recce tour prior to the Tour de France.

“There simply hasn’t been any time. Furthermore, I know most of the climbs already. As for some of the tricky descents, knowing a descent doesn’t necessarily provide security because you cannot prepare everything that might happen on the road. And I believe that the two ascents on the L’Alpe d’Huez are going to be more important than the one descent on that mountain.”

Asked if riding in unknown territory might turn into a problem van Garderen was unequivocal.

“You’d be surprised how many races we do each year without knowing the details of the parcours beforehand.”