With an overall victory in the Vuelta a Espana, Fabio Aru joined the coveted list of grand tour stars in 2015. In 2016, the Italian targets a debut at the Tour de France but first he took some time to reflect on the past season in an interview with Tuttobiciweb.

Before the Vuelta triumph, Aru had finished second in the Giro which made him believe that overall victory in Spain was within reach.

"I thought I had done everything necessary to aspire to a great result, yes,” he told the Italian website. “After the Giro I recovered well and then I prepared for a second peak of form ahead of the Vuelta. At the Tour of Poland I realized I was on the right track,” he added before revealing that he realized that the win was possible when he took the leader’s jersey in the queen stage to Andorra.”

However, the race got off to a rough start when Vincenzo Nibali was expelled from the race after the second stage for holding onto a team car.

"That was not nice,” Aru said. “It was a very bad and complicated start. First it was the crash and then the disciplinary action: it was really tough. For a few days we were all very confused. It took a bit of time to find the right balance.”

Aru had to do the rest of the race without Nibali with whom he reportedly has a difficult relationship. However, he is full of praise for his fellow Astana captain.

"Vincenzo has so many skills that I like, especially his stubbornness, his determination,” he said. “Even when it seems to be all over, he is never giving up. What I like the least is when he wants me to play his video games: I don’t have the same passion.

"From him I only have to learn, and especially his descending skills are at another level. I descend reasonably well but I'm not like him. Vincenzo is one a bit like me but without any doubt he is better to handle a bike than most riders in the world.”

Aru may have won the Vuelta but he is even prouder of his achievements in the Giro where he came back from several days of below-par performances, most notably in the Mortirolo stage, to win the final two mountain stages and finish second overall.

"[I thought that the podium would be impossible] on at least five occaions: Imola, Vicenza, Mortirolo, Lugano and Verbania. In these five stages I was really bad. But I also have to admit that for much of the stage to Cervinia I was not feeling good at all but you know very well how it ended,” he said, referring to his first stage win.

"I consider my second place a great victory. Just a few others and I know how bad I felt in that Giro. It is one thing when you find an opponent who is stronger than you. It is different when you feel you do not have any strength.”

The Giro was partly made memorable by the internal Astana rivalry of Aru and teammate Mikel Landa. It continued at the Vuelta when Landa stayed away to win the queen stage instead of assisting his teammate. However, Aru refuses the suggestions that the Basque had been illoyal.

"He is a 25-year-old rider who is riding very fast,” he said. “He is asked to ride in support of a rider of the same age and already did so in the Giro d’Italia. What do you mean? He is anything but a traitor. Stop it! And why? It would be an injustice. You saw what he did for me after his win.”