Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) made his Tour de France debut last year. The team had expected him to win a stage in the first week, but he had to wait until stage 10 before the German grabbed the victory and won the stage ahead of arch rival Mark Cavendish in Carmeaux. By winning the stage, Greipel became one of the few riders to have won a stage in every Grand Tour.

This year, Greipel is planning to win at least one stage.

"I want to win a stage and if it comes early then why not a second. My first goal is on Monday," Greipel said.

He has already checked out the final kilometres of this stage. It will be the first possibility for sprinters like Greipel to win. Everyday, team director Mario Aerts will drive ahead of the publicity caravan to check out the parcours. Several sprinters' team have someone who is employed for this reason. To inform the crew about changing weather conditions and things that could affect the team's performance.

Greipel won't answer how many stages he believe can be won in a bunch sprint, but he most likely knows which stages he think he can win.

There has been speculations that sprinters like Cavendish and Greipel might leave the race before the end to focus on the Olympic road race, but none of them seem to be planning it.

"I haven't been here too often in the past so now that I'm here I want to make the best of it. Also in the last week I don't want to leave because there's the chance to sprint for the win on the Champs Elysees. It's not the perfect build-up to the Olympic road race though," Greipel said.

He will be the German team leader at the Olympics. A smaller team makes it hard to control the race, but Greipel is a strong sprinter even without a large lead-out train. Nothing is impossible.