Like last year Vincenzo Nibali has had a slow start to the season but as it was the case 12 months ago, a win in the Italian road race championships indicate that he has found his best form in time for the biggest goal: the Tour de France. The defending champion set an optimistic tone at his pre-race press conference.

“This year, my condition is in line with last year,” Nibali said. “There’ll be big expectations on me as defending champion but there are riders who have done more than me so far this season, like Froome winning the Dauphiné, but I’ll play my cards day by day and see how I go.

“We’ve talked a lot about this first week, which has some tough finishes, like the Mur de Huy. But we’ll just try to ride like we’ve always done and the Tour is always difficult from the start in any case.

“I wouldn’t settle for a second place but in Italian cycling, you have to go back to Bottechia to find an Italian who won two Tours in a row. That makes you understand how difficult it is to win the Tour de France.”

A few days ago Nairo Quintana reacted angrily to comments from Nibali who had questioned where the Colombian was training in the build-up to the Tour. In his conference, Quintana had made it clear that he had been tested five time while training in his home country and Nibali was keen to play down the situation.

“I’m sorry if Quintana was angry or offended. My intention was not to speak badly of Colombia, which is a wonderful country with a lot of great riders who are riding very strongly,” he said. “It’s just that there was no news of Quintana and we were all asking ourselves about where he was, but not in a malicious way. We knew that Alberto was training in Livigno and where all the other contenders were and so on, I just meant ‘let’s see where Quintana is.

“I don’t know if we’re all controlled as much as one another. I can only speak for myself. I’m tested a lot by WADA and the UCI and I can only say that they do great work."