Despite having never won a WorldTour race, Bryan Coquard and his Europcar team (who will become Direct Energie next year), are hopeful of taking victory and pulling on the Yellow Jersey in the opening week of the Tour de France, especially on stage three, which takes place in Coquard’s home region of Pays de La Loire.

“It is a dream,” Coquard told Cyclingnews about the prospect of winning Tour stages at the presentation of the 2016 Tour de France route.

The young Frenchman also says that there are at least “five or six sprint stages” in the race, not including those that could go between a break or the sprinters.

“The Yellow Jersey would be very good, but cycling is difficult. When I turn up to the Tour, I go there to win stages,” he said about his chances of taking Yellow on stage one.

Coquard is also a French hope for the Olympics, and he spoke about balancing the track and the road commitments he has next year.

“It’s difficult but for the moment I think it’s possible. The Olympics is a goal for me. While it’s not as high as an Olympic medal, winning a Tour stage is still the principal objective.”