Tadej Pogacar's super domestique broke a rib and suffered hand injuries, among other things, but the team and rider hope that he will recover after a weekend with two sprint stages. Thomas De Gendt had good and bad news for Almeida on that front.

The race of truth is the first big opportunity for the general classification riders to lay down a marker so this should be intriguiing viewing. At 33km it is also the longest opening-week individual time trial since 2012 and that should pronounce any time gaps between the favourites.