In 2013, Andrea Guardini got his first taste of WorldTour racing when the Italian sprinter rode for Astana after two seasons as one of the captains on the Vini Fantini team. However, the transition has been anything but smooth and now the talented Italian just hopes to become the old Andrea Guardini again.

Andrea Guardini had long shown that he was one of the major sprint talents in the world but when he beat Mark Cavendish in a direct battle on a stage in the 2012 Giro d'Italia, his potential seemed to be unlimited. That win and the 20 other victories he took during his first two seasons as a professional, earned him a spot on the Astana roster for 2013.

However, his first season at WorldTour level never panned out as he had hoped. After winning a stage in the Tour de Langkawi in February - thus adding to his record tally of 11 wins in the Malaysian race - he never showed the kind of speed that had marked him out as a danger man in the sprints. Apart from a 4th place in Scheldeprijs and two 2nd places in the Tour of Turkey, he had no top 10 results after Langkawi and did very little racing in the second part of the season.

Claiming to have learned a lot in his first year at the highest level, Guardini refuses to see 2013 as a year of missed opportunities. Nonetheless, he knows that the results have not lived up to expectations and his main goal in 2014 is to find back to his former level.

"At the moment, I think the goal is to be Andrea Guardini again," he told Spaziociclismo in an interview. "I do not want to make any other goals and I will not point to any specific race as I want to be a little more modest without thinking too big. I prefer to work from day to day without aiming too high."

To find back to his winning ways, Guardini plans to hit the ground running. He will start his season a bit later than usual but will find plenty of opportunities in his first races of the season, starting with the new Dubai Tour.

He rose to fame in Langkawi and plans to return to Malaysia in a quest to improve his record of 12 wins in the race.

"Yes, the Tour de Langkawi will still be on my schedule and it will be important to do well," he said. "It's a race that grows with each passing year, and this year they have started to make their stages a bit longer to prompt the WorldTour riders to bring their best riders. It's a point in the season where 10 days of riding in the heat can be very useful."

Guardini has often made it clear that the Milan-Sanremo is his dream race. In 2014, the race will, however, include the new Pompeiana climb in the finale and it is expected to tip the race away from the sprinters.

Guardini regrets the chance and now deems the race beyond his reach.

"Unfortunately, the Milan-Sanremo will no longer be my dream race," he said. "They have changed it and next year I think it will be a new classic. Personally, I am opposed to these changes because it has always had its own characteristics like the Tour de France which ends on the Champs-Élysées and the Vuelta which ends in Madrid but now it is a completely different race.

"Furthermore, I don't understand the reason for making it harder. It is not a criticism of [organizers] RCS but it will certainly change the list of winners. 40-50 will no longer be able to win it and it will be restricted to 5-6 riders."

With the classics apparently no realistic target, he will aim to become a traditional sprinter with a focus on the stage races. Unsurprisingly, his goal now is to win a stage in the world's biggest race.

"The race of my dreams - or at least the stage races of my dreams - is the Tour de France because I have always seen it as a bigger Giro d'Italia with a better show and larger audience. A stage win in the Tour would be my best achievement and a win on the Champs-Elysées would be the highlight but at the moment it is a long-term goal. I work every day to achieve my immediate objectives."

Those objectives could include a return to the Giro where he won that famous stage in 2012. With the Astana team focusing on the GC with Michele Scarponi and Fabio Aru, he knows that it will be difficult to earn a berth.

"It could be a goal to earn a spot in the Giro d'Italia but I know that it is very difficult to be chosen as one of the nine for the Giro in a big team like Astana with many talents," he said. "That could be the first goal. Then it would be to play my chance during the first two weeks and from there a third objective could be to finish the race. But before you think about finishing, you should think about getting there."

A stage win in the Giro would be the perfect way to show that Guardini is still a force to be reckoned with in the sprints.