Goss refining lead out for the Tour de France in Slovenia

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Matt Goss (Orica GreenEdge) will try a different tack in the lead in to what he hopes will be a very successful July with both the Tour de France and the Olympic Games road race at the height of his season agenda.

Goss will link up with key lead out men Daryl Impey and Brett Lancaster at the Tour de Slovenie, which starts on Thursday, in a bid to fine-tune his preparation.

"It's going to be a bit of a different experience," Goss told Cyclingnews. "It's only a short, little hit out being only four days – two flatter stages, a mountain stage and then a time trial so, it's going to be a different preparation but at the same time I think it should be pretty good."

In 2011, Goss rode the Tour de Suisse in the lead up to his debut at the Tour de France, but having raced the Tour of Turkey, and the Giro d'Italia he believes that his schedule would have been "too heavy" this time around.

Lancaster was key to Goss' performance in Turkey where he frustratingly came away with four second places, but the 25-year-old believes that with the added firepower of Impey, with whom he also raced with at the Giro, he will gain some added momentum in the push for the finish line. Goss describes Impey's impact as "incredible" - a consistent 20 to 25 seconds worth of power he can't be without when it comes to the sprint.

"He's really got a lot of power," Goss said of the South African. "He's quite strong and with the stage I won [at the Giro] he pulled from 1.1, 1.2k's to go until 450 metres. You can see how strong he is by the stage he won at Pais Vasco where he pretty much rode away."

Orica GreenEdge sports director Matt White told Cyclingnews that Goss' Giro lead out was done "very well" and was a significant boost to the Tasmanian's confidence without giving anything away regarding who will surround the green jersey hope at the Tour.

"The big difficulty for us at the start of the season, and we weren't hiding it, was losing Julian Dean," White explained. "He probably is the most experienced lead out guy still around, he's been doing it for a very long time and for us to lose him before the season even started in December and then for him to break his leg the second day back in competition, we really struggled with a few things."

Joining Goss, Impey and Lancaster in Slovenia will be Sam Bewley, Mitch Docker, Michael Hepburn, Travis Meyer and Jens Mouris.