Trek-Segafredo announced Monday that it has officially named Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema as co-leaders of the Tour de France, which begins Saturday in Nice. The team also confirmed that world road race champion Mads Pederson will take on the role of supporting the two team leaders and will have a chance to claim a stage win. [The team's goal is to go for GC with Bauke Mollema and Richie Porte. But another goal is to win more than one stage. At least one of the captains is aiming for GC, and the rest are aiming for stage wins," said team director Kim Andersen.

Porte and Mollema will likely lead the Tour de France roster, which finished 11th and 28th, respectively, in 2019, while Vincenzi Nibali is widely reported to plan to focus on the Giro d'Italia.

Porte confirmed that of the two co-leaders, he will focus primarily on the overall, but will not rule out a stage win if the opportunity arises. He also noted that the Grande Pal in Nice, especially stage 2, will be the decisive point of the first week. Porte started the season by finishing third overall at the Tour des Alpes, but then contracted the COVID-19 coronavirus, which interrupted his season. This month he returned to racing, finishing sixth overall at La Route des Occitanie, 18th at the Tour de l'Ain, and 15th at the Criterium du Dauphiné.

"For me, the goal is to do well in GC, which is the team's goal. Last year, Giulio Ciccone won a stage, which was a great morale booster for the team. I would be happy to have a good Tour like that," Porte said. [This year's Tour has a really difficult start. I know the roads around Nice well and the first day will be tricky and stressful as always. The second stage will be like nothing we've seen before. I think it will be a really decisive stage and tactically anything can happen. Some of the stages, especially the Alps stage, look pretty good for me. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

Morema, who co-leads the roster with Porte, confirmed that he is looking for more stage win opportunities, especially in the first week of the Tour. Morema returned to racing at La Route d'Occitanie, where the season calendar was changed, and finished fifth overall. He then finished sixth overall at the Tour de l'Ain and fourth overall at Il Lombardia. The Dutch rider said he was ready for a strong start in the three-week race.

"I am really looking forward to the Tour de France. Hopefully I can join the GC contenders and at the same time aim for the stages. This Tour has some mountain stages in the first week, so if my level is high, I think I have a good chance to try to win a stage. I think in this magical year, you have to take every chance," said Mollema, who won a Tour stage in 2017.

"I've been scouting quite a bit, so I know the course well, I've seen the eight stages well and I know it's going to be a very hard Tour, especially in the last week when the race is decided. But the first week is already very hard, so we have to be ready from the start.

"The training over the last few months has been good and I think we have shown a good level in races like Occitanie, Tour de Ain and Lombardia. These races went very well and I hope I can continue to show a good level in the Tour."

World Champion Mads Pedersen, Kenny Elissondo, Niklas Egg, Toms Skugins, Jasper Stuyven, and Edward Theuns will support the co-leaders.

Andersen said he expects a difficult Tour de France with mountain stages early on, but the team also needs to stay as fresh as possible for the challenging third week. Besides supporting Porte and Mollema, Andersen would like to see Pedersen, Steuben, and Tuens looking for a breakaway or stage win in the punchy second week.

"The team has strong and fast riders like Jasper Steuben, Mads Pedersen, and Edward Tuens. 'I think there will be a lot of stages with breakaways and we can put them there. They will also be good for defending the leaders, which will give the Classics a lot of freedom in the second week."

Trek-Segafredo roster for the 2020 Tour de France: Niklas Egg, Kenny Elissondo, Bauke Mollema, Mads Pedersen, Richie Porte, Toms Skugins, Yasper Stuyven, Edward Zaunce.