While 2017 is going to be the third season in the last four Fabio Aru rides the giro-Vuelta double, the Italian star says he will return to the Tour de france to win one year, after his debut this Summer ended in 13th after cracking out of the top ten on the last mountain stage.

“The Giro is starting from Sardinia again. I wasn’t a professional in 2007 so for me it would be the first time,” Aru said. “I say ‘would’ because first we have to weigh up the programme with the team and the staff, but certainly I’d really like to be there.”

Aru freely admits 2016 was a difficult year for himself, where sixth in Valenciana and ninth in Algarve, as well as a brilliant solo win in the Dauphine was as good as it got for Aru, before sixth in the Olympics and some nice results in the late Italian races.

“For me 2016 was a very difficult year. I learned more from a year like that than from the years where everything went well. We made some mistakes but I’ll keep those between me and the team,” Aru said. “I’ll come back to the Tour sooner or later because it’s a race that I liked a lot. I never dwell on whether a race is more or less suited to me. I think there was a bit more stress at the Tour from the opening stages, but it’s not excessively harder than the Giro or the Vuelta. I repeat: I liked the Tour, even if it didn’t go well for me.”