“I think, even if I hadn’t got results this season, there’d be no point in having any fear,” he told RCUK.

“It’s the chance to find out what you have got on a level with those WorldTour guys so I think we’ll just see how it goes and get stuck in really.

“I’ve not looked too far ahead, I just want to stay relaxed about it and take each stage as it comes. You don’t want to look too far forward or you’ll just give yourself more to dread.”

McLay will be joined on the Mont-Saint-Michel startline by Norwegian team-mate Vegard Breen and Frenchman Armindo Fonseca, both of whom will be tasked with delivering McLay to the front for the bunch sprints.

Where the likes of Cavendish can count on a well-drilled and dedicated sprint train, Fortuneo-Vital Concept’s budget does not allow for such a luxury.

Nevertheless, McLay believes the more they race together – Breen having been present for both of the Brit’s victories this season – the more chance they have of success.

The form book reflects McLay’s ambition as, since his GP de Denain victory, he has been in the top five in stages of the Tour de Picardie, Baloise Belgium Tour, Boucles de la Mayenne and Route du Sud.

Now McLay will compete on an altogether different level but the Brit is keen to see what he can do when pitted against the likes of Cavendish,Kittel, Greipel and Peter Sagan.

“I’m pretty excited and I think the form’s there so I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ve not picked any one stage in particular to target.

“It will be a case of just trying to be up there in every sprint, putting myself in a good position before it and hopefully I can be in a good place to really see what the legs have got.”

McLay will be one of eight Brits on this year’s startline – joining defending champion Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Luke Rowe and Ian Stannard of Team Sky, Dimension Data duo Mark Cavendish and Steve Cummings, and Orica-GreenEDGE’s Adam Yates.

• Most recent British Tour de France debuts

  2016 – Dan McLay
  2015 – Luke Rowe, Alex Dowsett, Adam Yates
  2014 – Simon Yates
  2013 – Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard

It’s two down on last year’s tally of ten, but reflective of the wider picture in recent years, which has seen more and more Brits selected for the Tour.

But McLay’s mind is fixed firmly on his own path first and foremost on his mind, rather than British success, as he prepares to add his name to the long list of homegrown talent at the Tour.

However, he jokes there will be one big advantage of having other British riders around should he find himself out the back when the big climbing starts.

“Every year there seems to be, in general, more and more British riders doing the Tour but I’ve not thought about it in that context,” he said.

“I just want to ride it for myself, but it will always be good to have other Brits around and hopefully there’ll be a couple in the grupetto when we have the hard days!

“In some ways you look forward to the suffering in the mountains, but you do dread it as well.”

Still, dread and fear are far from McLay’s mind as he prepares for Saturday’s Grand Départ  – and a man without fear for reputation can be a dangerous prospect indeed.