Jumbo-Visma's Wout Van Aert, who successfully defended his Belgian time trial championship on Thursday, believes that with Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas not selected for the Tour by rival team Team Ineos, his team will have the next He believes they will have an advantage in the Tour de France.

"I think the main reason is that the (recent) Criterium du Dauphiné confirmed that they were not playing hide-and-seek and were not in good shape," Van Aert told Het Nieuwsblad on Thursday.

The 25-year-old, who will be part of Jumbo-Visma's eight-man team at the Tour, was a surprise addition to the British WorldTour team after 2019 Giro d'Italia champion Richard Kalapas was a surprise addition to the Ineos Tour team, even though he was targeting an October Giro defense. Tour team, he added, gave them enough firepower.

"They are sending a strong team to the Tour. Carapas may have had a bit of a strange race, but their stage win at the Tour de Pollogne shows there's nothing wrong with that."

Jumbo Visma, however, finished third overall at last year's Tour and was scheduled to start the modified race in Nice on August 29 as one of three leaders of the Dutch WorldTour team, along with Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin, Steven Kruijswijk would have to be enlisted.

The team announced Thursday that Kruijswijk broke his shoulder as a result of a crash on the fourth stage of last week's Dauphiné and will be replaced by Norway's Amund Grondahl Janssen.

"On paper it looks like we have the upper hand," Van Aert added. 'But nothing and very little will change on the Tour's course. The route is so demanding that it will soon become clear to whom the Tour will fall and which teams will have to take responsibility. But there is no denying that we are in good shape at the moment."