Fabio Aru has spoken about the respect he has for Mikel Landa after all the work Sky’s new signing did for him in 2015. Astana’s Italian also says he wants to face Landa regularly in 2016 to test himself against his former teammate.

“Mikel sacrificed his personal ambitions to help me to achieve my goals,” Aru said in an interview with Spanish newspaper AS. “I hold a lot of love and admiration for that, but I would like us to face each other as adversaries in a race.”

Aru won the 2015 Vuetla as well as two stages and second overall at the Giro. In that period, Landa was third in Italy with two stage wins, as well as taking another stage at the Vuelta.

Aru spoke of his desire to take results earlier than he has done in the past, looking for success in the Basque Country and Ardennes Classics.

“I would love to achieve good results earlier in the Basque Country or the Ardennes Classics,” he adds. “This season I hope to have a good preparation, as I did last winter, and to continue in this direction of growth.”

Aru says he has become more popular and people recognize him more often. The 25 year old enjoys this, but says there is added media pressure.

“I’ve noticed that people recognise me easier now,” Aru explained. “I was in a bar in Alicante, and the owner was surprised. ‘But you’re Aru, Congratulations for the Vuelta.’ Things like this make you hope. It is the advertising commitments that I dislike the most, but I try to do it with a smile. You always have to take the good things, and the support of the tifosi make me proud.”