After the Giant-Alpecin team presenttion ended, Simon Geschke jumped on a plane to head to Australia where he will lead the team with Tom Dumoulin.

Geschke is heading to Australia to begin a season where he will target the Ardennes Classics and, hopefully, the Tour de France.

"I am motivated as every year and hot on the season. I would also without great presentation and a foreign license. "His first major goal is" once again the Ardennes Classics in April as he told Radsport News. “The podium at the Amstel Gold Race last year was in reach and this year is a big goal for me," said the Freiburger, who will contest a program similar to 2014 in preparation for the Ardennes triple, and was fifth in the 2014 Amstel Gold race.

Having ridden the Giro d’Italia in 2014, he says he doesn’t want to spend another July in front of his TV watching the Tour and says he wants to ride there again.

"The Tour participation is very important to me, I will not have to sit back in front of the TV in July," he said. He could well imagine being with another of the big tours: "I would also like to ride two Grand Tours this season.”

However, he knows Tour participation will mean working for stage wins for the team’s two fast men, Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb.

"Stage victories are the big goal for the team at the Tour," he said, and was aware, however, that Kittel has set the bar high with a total of eight stage wins in the past two editions. "Whether it is now more or less than four as in each of the last two years remains to be seen," he added.

Geschke, who isn’t 29 until March, has a deal with Giant-Alpecin until the end of 2016, at which point he will have spent eight seasons at the team. That is a long time in cycling and he doesn’t rule out a move elsewhere.

"Maybe it will be after 2016. I will see then if it is time for a change in my career," he said.

Fr the first time in years, ARD will televise the Tour de France to German television. Geschke just hopes they don’t need to leave the sport like they did last time due to German doping scandals.

"I wish in the first place, that ARD does not have to do it again on their exit clause use (in the Tour de France)," he said.