This year Robert Gesink made an unsuccessful big at Giro glory but next year he will skip the Italian grand tour. Instead, the Belkin rider will go back to focus on the Tour de France as he has done in the past.

Robert Gesink made an unusual adjustment to his season schedule which has mostly been centred around success in the Tour de France when the Dutchman decided to focus on the Giro d'Italia in 2013. However, his attempt at the Italian grand tour was an ill-fated one as he was unable to follow the best in the mountains and finally abandoned the race due to illness.

He had hoped to be able to complete a successful Giro-Tour double but by the time he lined up at the Grand Depart in Corsica, he was still fatigued from his exploits in Italy. Hence, he settled into a domestique role for Bauke Mollema who finished 6th overall.

Next year Gesink will go back to his traditional season schedule and will thus make the Tour his main target.

“Next year I will go for the Tour again and go for GC,” he told Cyclingnews at the Tour of Beijing which finished yesterday. “I might do the Vuelta afterwards, but first it will just be the Tour.”

For many years, Gesink was regarded as a future grand tour winner and he did well in his first three-week races. He was 6th in the 2009 Vuelta where he would have finished higher if he hadn't crashed near the end of the race, and 5th in the 2010 Tour. Since then his progress has stalled with his best performance coming at last year's Vuelta where he was 6th without ever being a genuine podium contender.

However, the Dutchman still feels that he has time to fulfil the lofty expectations.

 “I’m only 27," he said. "I’ve been there and I’ve been pretty close before so never say never.”

In the Tour, Gesink is, however, unlikely to be the sole captain. Mollema is likely to go back to the Tour with to improve on this year's strong showing and the team also has Laurens Ten Dam and Steven Kruijswijk in its ranks. Young Wilco Kelderman recently made it clear that he would like to go for the GC in the Giro and could take over Gesink's role as leader in the Italian grand tour.

Gesink bounced back from his grand tour disappointments in the late-season races. He won the GP Cycliste de Quebec by beating faster riders in an uphill sprint, was 10th in Il Lombardia and finished 8th in the Tour of Beijing. However, he admits that the Giro was a disappointment.

“It wasn’t what I expected,” he said. “I went full gas for the GC and I got ill. Then, at the Tour, I wasn’t as fresh as I thought, so I worked for the team. That was a bit of a disappointment but, in the end, Quebec made up for a lot of less nice moments.”

Gesink ended his season yesterday.