One year after he made his debut in the race, Ireland's Dan Martin has been confirmed as one of the team leaders of the Garmin-Sharp team for this year's Tour de France.

The climber will have status as a protected rider on the team, along with the Canadian Ryder Hesjedal and the American Andrew Talansky. All three have previously underlined their ability; Martin won the Volta a Catalunya and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Hesjedal took the 2012 Giro d'Italia and Talansky was second overall in this year's Paris-Nice.

The latter is untested over a three week race, though, making Martin and Hesjedal the more likely chiefs of the team as the race enters its second half.

"We have a deep team with a lot of options as we head into the Centennial Tour de France. Our goal is to animate the race and with an aggressive strategy, we will aim to place high in the general classification," team chief executive Jonathan Vaughters said yesterday.

“We have a few guys capable of achieving that – Ryder’s won a Grand Tour and placed in the top 10 of the Tour de France; Andrew is young and while it’s his first Tour de France, he is coming off a great season; and Dan Martin is having a breakout year with his wins in Catalunya and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.”

Martin's first cousin Nicolas Roche will also compete in the race and was twelfth overall last year.