Ambitions for the Tour? Help Vino and win the team classification

What do the team management expect of you?I  think it is safe to say that I will have a free hand. The most important thing is to support Vino who will be our captain. I will help him out in the mountains together with Tiralongo and our presence should give him a lot of mental boost. Other than that, I would like to contribute to the fight for the victory in the team classification. We´ve brought many strong riders here.What are you personal ambitions?That depends on how the legs will be after five stages. It can very well happen that I will be in excellent shape and I will ride for the GC together with Vino. But presently it is too early to make any predictions. I haven’t raced for a month so I don’t know what kind of shape I am in compared to other riders. We will see how it goes along the race.You have decided to change your bike. What kind of a bike will you be riding?I will start out with the Specialized-McLaren Venge. In the tests this bike came off with better results on flat roads than SL3 and it is necessary to take advantage of every detail. I reckon that I will use this bike for the first ten days and then I will switch back to my regular bike.How would you describe your line-up?Vino is the leader and together with Tiralongo and Di Gregorio we should be the key lieutenants. Iglinskiy is our rider for breakaways, Vaitkus and Grivko should drag the pack on flat roads and keep us away from the wind. Fofonov, Zeits and Iglinskiy will be the riders for hilly stages. I think that it is a strong line-up that can win the team classification. After all, it is one of Astana´s big goals since the beginning of the season.Who do you see as the most likely winner?My  tip is Contador as the biggest contender for the victory. Apart from him options remain open. We will see what Andy Schleck does but he hasn’t  shown any strong performance up to now. About thirty riders are able to make it to the top ten and it depends on whether the race suits the individual rider or not.How long have you been rehearsing the team time trial?We dedicated two days to the team time trial and I think it was just enough. We will practice one more time on the course the day before the start and we will definitely determine the position of each rider. I think we can do well in the TTT.Have you studied up on the key mountain finishes?I´ve had a chance to get familiarized with all the famous climbs since 2008. I´ve never ridden up to Galibier and once I only went downhill from Col Agnel. But I don’t think that this will be a problem.