The start of the 2020 Tour de France in the southern resort of Nice is still more than six months away, but two men who attended Bahrain McLaren's training camp this week were firmly focused on next summer's race.

Mikel Landa and Wout Poels are both new additions to the heavily revamped team, which is looking to build its 2020 campaign around the race, and the two, who reunited after racing together for Team Sky in 2016 and 2017, are hoping their chances for personal success will They joined Bahrain from a team that had taken a backseat to other athletes.

Next season will be a chance for the Basque to prove he can get the job done on his own after sharing Grand Tour leadership for six years with Astana, Team Sky, and Movistar.

"It was tempting," Landa told Cycling News at the team's training camp in Hvar, Croatia, about his move to Bahrain McLaren. 'They're riding to win and they have a Grand Tour leader. That's very important. The riders who are helping me have clear ideas, so it all helps."

The team's team is also a great example of the kind of training that is needed in the Grand Tours.

For the past two seasons, Landa, along with Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, has been part of the notorious and sometimes dysfunctional Movistar trio.

His move to Bahrain McLaren is the first time in his nine-year career that he has assumed full leadership, but the task does not faze him.

"I think the team has a very clear idea. They want to race for the win and they want to win the Tour de France with me as leader. The whole team supports me.

Landa finished fourth in last year's Giro d'Italia and sixth in the Tour de France, recovering from poor early performances in both races. In Italy, he lost time in the early time trial and started several minutes behind the rest of the field in the major mountains. And in the Tour, he lost two minutes in a crash on stage 10, after which his team tactics were questionable.

"I think every time I finish a season, I gain more experience," Landa said. 'Each time I think we didn't know enough in the previous season. So now I feel more mature, more experienced, more confident. I think it's a very good time."

"This year's Tour is a very appropriate course for me. There are a lot of climbs and very few time trials. It's a great opportunity."

If Landa is feeling confident about his chances in France this summer, so is Poels, who will be aiming to race with goals that are very different from what he is used to with Team Ineos and divergent from his new teammates.

For the past five years, Poels has raced Grand Tours under Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, and Egan Bernal. The results have been phenomenal, with Poels leading his team to six wins.

"I was kind of stuck in the Grand Tours," Poels said. I've never won a stage in the Tour, the Giro, or the Vuelta. With this team I get a chance. In Ineos I was able to show what I can do in other races, but here I have a little bit more freedom. So it's a really good chance. So it's a really good chance."

Poels has also had his chances in Ineos, notably winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2016. Last year, he was also on the podium at the Tour Down Under and the Volta ao Algarve, and took a stage win at the Criterium du Dauphiné to finish fourth overall.

So while there have been plenty of races in 2019 where the 32-year-old could be a force to be reckoned with, the big itch has yet to be scratched.

"Usually, yes. That's the plan," Poels said when asked if he would ride for himself for the rest of the year. The big goal is to taste victory in the Grand Tours, and the closest he has come in the past are the three times he has finished second in various stages of the Vuelta. [Especially at the Tour. It would be great to win a stage there. It's going to be a really hard race this year, so we'll see what we can do."

"I thought about the Giro and the Vuelta, but the team really wanted me in the Tour, so I signed a three-year contract. We raced at a high level last year and there is no reason why we can't do it again this year and next year. I am full of confidence.

In short, it's a whole new start for Landa and Poels, and a renewed optimism ahead of a season built around their biggest race. Next July, we will see a "free Landa" and a "free Poels."