Ruben Zepuntke, who starts his season at the Tour Down Under with Cannondale Pro Cycling, hopes to start the 2017 Tour de France in his country home of Germany. His mother is the mayor of Düsseldorf, the Grand Départ hosting city.

"I've had 0% influence on the choice of the route for the opening time trial of the Tour de France next year," the 22-year-old rider explained to Cyclingnews. "But it's nice to know that the world's biggest race will use my training roads. For German cycling, it's really a big step forward. It's the start of a good relationship with cycling in Germany again."

Zepuntke has just started his second year with the US team. "My debut has been really good in the US and racing the Tour of Flanders has been an excellent learning experience. I became much stronger and I'm very excited ahead of the new season. I'm an all rounder and one of my goals is to lose weight to become better in the mountains."

This season, he hopes to shine on roads to gain confidence and to be present at the start of the 2017 Tour. "2016 is a very important year in my career because that's when I have to prove that I'm good enough to start the 2017 Tour de France in my city. I still live with my parents but me being a cyclist and my mother being the mayor have nothing to do with Düsseldorf's bid for the Grand Départ. That's been conducted by the marketing office under the Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel. (...) Düsseldorf is a beautiful city," he continued. "It's been named in the top three of the world's ranking for the best places to live in."