It's over three decades since a Dutchman last won the Tour de France, but young Robert Gesink has been widely tipped to make a mark on the GC in 2011.
The 25-year-old from Varsseveld - also, coincidentally, the birthplace of football manager Guus Hiddink - is the hottest cycling prospect to emerge from Holland for years, and there is a growing band of supporters who believe he's capable of success in a Grand Tour.
A stage win in the Tour of Belgium back in 2007 announced Gesink's arrival as a professional rider, while another victory at the 2008 Tour of California, a gruelling climb followed by a rapid descent, underlined his talent.
But it has been in the last 18 months since Gesink spent time training at altitude in the Sierra Nevada in which his performances have really caught the eye.
A stage win on the Tour de Suisse in 2010 catapulted him to the top of the general classification, though in the end he had to make do with fifth place overall.
A subsequent sixth-place finish in the 2010 Tour de France, the highest place for a Dutch rider in a decade, further cemented Gesink's future podium credentials - further enhanced by his first place in the 2011 Tour of Oman.
Gesink doesn't have entirely happy memories of the Tour de France, however. In 2009 he fell on Stage 5 and broke his wrist, prematurely ending his Tour.
But ahead of the 2011 Grand Start Gesink is fit and raring to go. A noted climber, the man nicknamed the 'Condor of Varsseveld' is Team Rabobank's great hope for the yellow jersey.
And he can look to the history books for inspiration if he is to challenge for a place on the podium.
Stage 19 of this year's Tour is the notorious climb to Alpe d'Huez - traditionally named 'the Dutch mountain' because of the success of Dutch riders up the famous 21 hairpin turns.
If he can pull away from the pack up Alpe d'Huez to win - becoming the first Dutchman since Gert-Jan Theunisse in 1980 to do so - Gesink could put himself in pole position just in time for the Tour to enter Paris.
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