After admitting he has almost no chance of defending his Liege-Bastogne-Liege title successfully, Orica-Greenedge rider Simon Gerrans has turned his attention to the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d’Italia, where he hopes to have good condition and the chance at winning stages, as he told SBS Cycling Central.

"I think it was probably more (sports director) Matt White’s idea. I text him and said it would be really hard to get motivated to work for the Ardennes when I know, really, I’m not going to get 100 per cent in shape for them, so it would be nice to put something after that. He suggested the Giro," Gerrans said.

"We looked to another significant objective in the first part of the year that I could work towards, which was in a more realistic time frame. It worked out perfectly because I can still build through this period of racing and hopefully hit top shape for the Giro.”

Gerrans heads an Orica team that won the opening team time trial last year in Ireland and will be looking to do so again in 2015.

“Now everything seems to be back on track and my form is coming up,” he said. “I’ve got a good goal to works towards, I’m healthy and I’m really motivated for this next block.”