Fabio Duarte has been an eternal hope for Colombian cycling since he won the 2008 U23 world championships in Varese. After a season with ups and downs, the climber was set to join the WorldTour but Colombian manager Claudio Corti offered him a contract and he ultimately decided to remain one of the leaders of his home team.

Having finally decided about his future, Duarte spoke with Ciclismo Internacional about his next targets and the changes he wants to make to his preparation. His future career had attratced a lot of interest from the cycling world after he had revealed that he was close to signing a contract with a WorldTour team.

" I was not surprised because I have a lot of talent and people trust that I can deliver good results in 2015," he said.

Like in 2014, Duarte will focus on the Giro d'Italia.

"I will start my season in February but the race has not been confirmed yet. The Giro d'Italia is a race that we have to honour. It is the dream of every rider and obviously also for me. I want to win the Giro or win stages in the mountains.

"The dream since I learned to ride a bike, is to be world champion, winning a Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana. 

" I think I can win a Giro because I trust my condition and during my professional career, I have had  very good results against world class riders."

Earlier this year Duarte said that he wanted to change his preparation to be more consistent and he plans to stay more in Europe.

"I am working on that but I only want to reach 100% and keep that form. Regarding a move to Europe, I know that it is possible to train well in Colombia but you need a winning mentality."

Duarte will again be one of the leaders of the Colombia team which has been strengthened a lot for the coming season. However, he is not too comfortable in that role. "I do not want to be the boss of Team Colombia. I just want to fulfill my goals and my dreams ," he said.

Duarte has had a very inconsistent season. He showed flashes of greatness in the Giro where he finished second in two big mountain stages but for the rest of the year he was pretty anonymous.

"It is difficult for a riderto say when he will win. You need moments of luck and opportunities," he said.

Furthermore, he insists that he only used the other races to "get into shape" for the Giro.

Over the years, Duarte has been under a lot of pressure due to his status as a former U23 world champion.

"I won the U23 world championships and then I started to ride against the professionals. If you look at the races I have done since 2008 you can see that I have always been riding against the best riders in the world like Nibali, Contador, Evans and Quintana," he said.

"It's true I have not won a lot but I have always sought victory against the best," he added. "An athlete is never satisfied and I wanted to win three or five races this year. The ambition of winning never has a limit."

Duarte refuses to reveal which WorldTour team he was close to signing a contract with.

"Now it is no longer interesting to know which team I was talking to and whether I had agreed to be a domestique. I want to be at a good level and achieve as many good results as possible."