Sorensen admits TTT fear

Contador has won all six of the last major Tours he has participated in but Sorensen thinks that the Spaniard might have precious seconds to make up on his GC rivals after the 23km stage against the clock in Les Essarts.

Sorensen said: "We have a very strong team that can help and support Alberto in every terrain. But we might not have the strongest team in terms of doing the team time trial.

"If we lose time during that particular stage we have some attacking to do in the mountains, and Alberto might need to take some time on his opponents on the individual time trials."

But Sorensen, fresh from winning the Danish national championship for the fourth time, is looking forward to helping Contador become the first rider to take the Tours of Italy and France in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.

He added: "Alberto is a great captain to support. He's such a fantastic guy to be around and he's a man that I instinctly want to help because he's openly appreciating the things you do for him.

"He's complementing his team-mates and is generally a generous person which makes him easy to be around.”

Contador, who won the Tour in 2007, 2009 and 2010, will be helped by climbers Jesus Hernandez and Dani Navarro, as well as close friend Benjamin Noval.

Australian Richie Porte will also support El Pistolero with the Danish duo of Chris Anker Sorensen and Brian Vandborg plus Italian veteran Matteo Tosatto completing the team.

Sorensen commented: "As a team, I think we're the strongest on the list and we are ready!”