Andre Greipel is returning to Italy for his first participation in the Giro d’Italia since 2010. His main aim is to continue his streak of winning a stage in each Grand Tour he has started since the 2007 Vuelta, where he last drew a blank.

“A Grand Tour is always something special and I always liked the Giro – I’ve done it two times and, yeah, I just wanted to go back. I’ve done the Tour of Belgium four years in a row now and I was looking for a different race,” he told Cyclingnews the day after he pulled out of the Tour of Turkey to train for the Giro, after taking stage 4 in Turkey.

“I want to add some more wins like in the Giro to my account, yes, but I have already won a stage in every grand Tour, I get paid for doing the thing I really like, I love my sport. I am lucky, I can choose my own races, so it’s nice of the team, and I think it’s also good for the team if I do the Giro.”

He says that while he wants to win stages, he hasn’t actually looked past the opening day’s team time trial and that means he hasn’t circled any particular stages to win.

“Honestly I never look at the parcours and I never look at the riders that are starting. We always try to concentrate on ourselves, if we stick to our plan, to our tactics, I think we can still always be able to win the stage. I haven’t looked at the route, just the first day – it will be TTT, all the rest I don’t know, I will take it as it comes.”

He also alluded to that very impressive win streak he has in Grand Tours, winning at least one stage in each of his last seven Grand Tours.

“For sure I’m proud. But I’m also proud of the team around me. OK, I stay there in the records as the winner but I know what I have got from my teammates. They rode their ass off for me and I think whoever was involved there I can all be proud of it.”

Just like in Turkey, the big German won’t have all of his Lotto-Soudal sprint train at the Giro, but that won’t hinder him too much.

“We won’t have a train in the Giro but I have Greg Henderson and Adam Hansen so I have two guys to support me in the sprints. Maybe three guys – it could work out like this but we will see, the team also has two guys for GC."

“You cannot say now I’m going to choose this wheel or whatever, every sprint is different, if there’s not a real lead-out train there then you always have to look for your spot in the sprint.”