Nielson Powles said he will support Rigoberto Urán in the Tour de France, aiming for a stage win rather than GC. The American finished 26 seconds behind the team leader, but 48 seconds ahead of stage winner and first race leader Yves Lampère in the opening time trial. [Meanwhile, Rigoberto Urán has had a less successful year, with only a top-10 finish in Ituriá Basque in 2022.

"I'm still here with Rigo as the main leader," Paules explained to Cycling News before the start of the second stage of the Tour de France in Roskilde. Paules believed that Uran was in great shape for this year's race and for a possible GC appearance. Just seeing him start in Switzerland, the day before he retired, and in training for this race, he was very strong."

"So I really want to support him and I'm always there as a backup option. Rigo is definitely my top priority and I would sell myself for Rigo if I had to."

"My personal priority is definitely a stage win.

Paules showed his spring form with a strong first half in Friday's TT, but struggled in the technical second half of the race. [The first half of the race was good. The first half of the race was good. It was less technical than the second half, and I think I proved how good my legs are."

"If I had pushed the limits, I could have really hurt myself. So rather than really pushing to finish 10th, I was happy just to concede 10, 15, 20 seconds and know that I wasn't going to crash."

Powless also spoke of the team's fancy kit and bike design.

"I think it's just a little more wild than normal professional cycling. Everyone I've talked to [in the peloton] says it's super wild, but pretty cool."

"Traditionally cycling is very professional looking and very high performance, focused on getting across the line as fast as possible. But given the amount of people who watch cycling and the amount of influence it has, I think it's not just about performance, but also about pushing the envelope. We can do both."