Alessandro de Marchi was set for a great debut season at BMC but missed most of the year due to an injury. For someone like him, rather impatient to inactivity, it was not at all easy to stay at home, waiting for the inflammation in the Achilles heel to heal. However, his patience paid off as he ended the year by taking his second Vuelta a Espana stage win.

"It was the most beautiful and important win of my career,” he told Tuttobiciweb. “It was a nice surprise because I did not expect to be so strong with so few racing days in my legs. I did not expect to win immediately so it was great satisfaction, even if I knew I had done the most in a short time to be ready for the last Grand Tour of the season. I won with my head more than with my legs. I do not think I was the strongest that day, but I needed a change to what had until then been a bad year. I say that this success has value greater than that of a year ago in Alcaudete and other achievements, because it gave me the feeling of being back to the level that I had reached a year ago. That was not a given thing since I could practically not touch the bike from April 1 to June 10.”

Unlike last year, the stage win was not enough to earn selection for the World Championships.

"Honestly I was amazed at the reaction of people when coach Cassani made the names for the team official,” he said. ”I had already spoken to Davide and heard about his idea, so I was not surprised and I won’t criticize his technical choices. He told me that the course was too easy for a rider of my characteristics and that he needed riders who could do a different job from what I could bring to the table. Now it's true that I'm fine, but the results I obtained all arrived in the mountains. The team that was selected has proven its value, it makes no sense to spend more time on that.

“The Olympics in Rio? It really is an event that I care about. Maybe because I come from the track, the discipline for which the Olympic Games are important, but the five rings have always had a great appeal to me. Even more so if the course for the road race is as challenging as they say- I will try to be ready- because the date after the Tour de France is congenial. Davide knows how I ride and what I can give when I'm one hundred percent.

“In reality, I lost half a season because I threw away several months after this infamous tendinitis. It all began after San Remo, when my time was coming, that of the northern classics. Instead, because of an inflammation of the Achilles tendon in my right foot which initially seemed minor, I had to stop – first for seven days and, given the persistence of the problem, for two weeks with all kinds of therapies. From week to week, I had to watch both the Giro and the Tour on TV. Probably the whole thing was caused by a combination of two factors: an old problem with the same ankle stemming from December when I was training with the time trial bike and a problem with the wisdom teeth which crested stress in the neck and back which had an effect on the Achilles tendo. One thing is certain, and I want to make that completely clear: the shoes have absolutely nothing to do with it."

However, it is not a lost year for De Marchi.

“Undoubtedly, this accident brought me negative things, made me lose days of training and competition which are vital for riders but for three months it allowed me to savor the important things in life: being with my family (mother Enrica, dad Renzo dad and younger brother Francesco, ed), in my country, at home. And I still got my victory in the Vuelta. Basically, much worse problems can happen. My break was long but not painful. It helped me a lot, taught me that there are people I can always count on for better or for worse, that really care about me and not just because I was on the podium in Paris as most combative rider of the Tour de France.

“Who should I thank? First of all, BMC who assisted me in the best way I could wish for and asked me to have patience in managing the problem. I was always close to them. To my family: I started rode ride when – after attending an event organized at school – I fell in love of cycling and without my parents I would not have gone far. I say thank you to the many people from cycling, to those who follow me in training, to the physiotherapists and all those who supported me. After this experience, they have become even more important.”

De Marchi has now set his sights on a big 2016 season.

"I hope that the main features of my 2016 season will be the Giro, the Tour and the Olympics. The Giro returns to Friuli, with a beautiful stage, the thirteenth from Palmanova to Cividale which passes close to home, and it looks tough as I like. I only did the Giro only in my first year at the top level, in 2011 with Androni. During the time at Cannondale, "the world’s hardest race in the most beautiful country in the world" passed right in front of my house while I was in Norway to compete. Enzo Cainero, head of the stages in Friuli, has forgiven me just because the Tour went well. I was saved because I won the red number. La Grande Boucle is indescribable, you cannot compare it to anything but after years of doing the Tour and Vuelta I feel the desire to return to do the Giro. I'd like to enjoy the home stage and to live this experience. I would go crazy with joy to do the Giro d’Italia among my people.”