Alex Dowsett is currently training in Spain in order to ensure he is in peak condition for his Tour de France debut in July.

“Ever since I joined Movistar the Tour this year was their objective for me,” Dowsett said. “Nothing is certain until you’re on that start line but so far everything is looking good towards it. That’s why I’m not starting the Giro.”

The 25 year old Brit took a win in the time trial in last year’s Giro d’Italia, his first Grand Tour and he was also given the chance to ride the Northern Classics like Roubaix, and these opportunities are why he signed for Movistar.

“It’s a funny one because you might not win a race but you have your own personal victories. In 2010 I broke a shoulder blade and then won under-23 European championships seven weeks later, so you have little victories like that, which maybe mean more to you because of the stuff you had to overcome,” he said. “But the Giro one was a surprise. I didn’t take into account that I was eight days into a stage race. I was looking at the numbers in front of me and thinking this actually isn’t very good.”

Dowseet has shown form in 2014 already with a win in the TT at the Circuit de la Sarthe in April as well as a good performance in the Giro del Trentino.

“I was climbing alright for me anyway,” he said of the latter. “It worked out [Adriano] Malori, myself and Daniel Oss were the three heaviest riders in the race. You didn’t really have your normal gruppetto with sprinters and lead-out guys because everyone there was a climber. I wasn’t really even in that. I was in the gruppetto ahead of that so for me that showed I’ve progressed a fair bit. I was quite happy.”

Dowsett next’s heads to the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon later in May before riding the Dauphine, where the 10km prologue will be very attractive to him.

“That’s where the team wants me, that’s where I want to be and I’ll be very disappointed if it doesn’t go that way,” Dowsett said.