Danish sprinter Alex Rasmussen is hoping to make his debut at the Tour de France in July. He says that his chances of participating have increased thanks to his switch from team Saxo Bank to Mark Cavendish's HTC team this off-season.
Rasmussen has already been talking with HTC's sports director Rolf Aldag about the Tour de France.
"Rolf Aldag said that I must aim for the Tour de France's team time trial," Rasmussen told Denmark's TV 2 Sport. "The Tour de France has now become a dream for me."
The Tour de France features a 23-kilometre team time trial stage on day two in Les Essarts. As well as being a good sprinter, Rasmussen is a strong time trialist. In February, he won the Vuelta a Andalucía time trial ahead of Brad Wiggins.
"I agree with Aldag," said HTC's Danish sports director, Brian Holm.
However, Holm explained that the 26-year-old cyclist first needs to prove himself in the early season races.
"The big question is whether he can handle a three-week stage race. We will clarify this during the season. We shall see whether he is robust enough, because now we basically don't know him."
Rasmussen began racing with third division team Team Odense Energi in 2007. In 2008, he won four stages of the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China. He spent the last two years with Bjarne Riis' Saxo Bank team. This year, he won the Andalucía time trial, the GP Herning and two stages in the Four Days of Dunkirk.
"On team Saxo Bank, I've basically been third in line," said Rasmussen. "I had a completely different priority there because they must have many more climbers, and so I was not even considered."
Rasmussen signed a one-year contract with HTC in September.
Next month, he will join team HTC for wind tunnel testing in Germany. The team will test new equipment and their riders' time trial positions.