Dylan Groenewegen, from a Bulgarian family hotel, on the unique Giro opportunity for himself and Unibet Rose Rockets

Friday is the day: Dylan Groenewegen lines up in Bulgaria at the start of the Giro d'Italia on a mission for Unibet Rose Rockets. Stage one in Burgas should, in all likelihood, come down to a sprint. And Groenewegen is one of the fastest men in the race. On Wednesday he took time out by the Black Sea to sit down with IDL Pro Cycling for a chat.

Groenewegen and the Rockets have had an excellent season, but the recent build-up has been disrupted. Groenewegen himself crashed at the Scheldeprijs, while on Monday the team were forced to confirm that Karsten Feldmann — their second-to-last lead-out man — has fallen ill and will miss the race.

Before that, Rory Townsend — the experienced Irishman originally in that role — had also dropped out. But Groenewegen and his team have already shown they can deal with that kind of setback. On Friday, in what is also the first-ever Grand Tour start for Bas Tietema's squad, they get the chance to make history. And Groenewegen knows it.

"My back was giving me some trouble for a while, so I had to ease off in training and take it easy. That's also why we had to skip the Ronde van Limburg, and that turned out to be the right call — the back got better pretty quickly. Then we spent three weeks in Spain with the team and it went well there. So we're ready."

"We already rode in Bulgaria today (Wednesday), but not on the stage routes yet. Although, as far as I know, there's no gravel on those. (laughs) It's a lovely country with a lot of enthusiastic people, so that's nice.

I've done the Giro once before — kind of, as I call it myself. That was after a difficult period, my suspension, and I was coming back after a long time without racing. I dropped out after about nine days, so in some ways this almost feels like my first Giro too."

"That's true for five of our riders, yes. But that makes it even more exciting. It's a shame Karsten Feldmann got ill after the training camp, but in Matyáš Kopecký we have a rider with the same capabilities stepping in for him."

"Absolutely. We've been working towards that all year, and a lot of meetings and discussions have gone into it. There's a lot of input from me and from Elmar, but the younger guys also bring ideas to the table. If that can be rewarded with victories, it gives everyone a boost.

Marcel Kittel plays a big part in that too, of course. That started back in winter, with all the meetings we had then. Marcel is full of energy, loves doing it, and it shows in everything. He doesn't mind spending an extra half hour in a meeting, goes through everything meticulously — and that only drives us all on more."

"Very well. We started working on it two or three weeks ago, and by then we'd already talked through our plans with each other. Now we're getting into the fine details, but I can say that I know exactly what those last two or three kilometres look like."

"Milan, Magnier, Moschetti — Malucelli can always spring a surprise, Lund Andresen I definitely expect... there are about eight of them for a stage like the first one. Everyone is still fresh and full of ambition, so you have to write down all of those names."

"You could already feel that in the first race of the season in Valencia. We started with a win straight away, which made everyone even more aware. When it worked again in Bruges — the first WorldTour sprint race of the year — it was a matter of proving ourselves again. And now you're at a point where you notice it in the peloton too: others are watching you."

"The team presentation gets it all started, and then the day before you can relax a bit and go over everything once more. That builds up the tension slightly, which is a good feeling — but I'm someone who always sleeps well."