Any hopes Beñat Intxausti of personal gory in a Grand Tour will have to be set-aside for 2015 at least. He will ride the Tour de France solely in support of Alejandro Valverde, but the Movistar rider says doing the Tour is no problem for him:

"The situation is clear. Valverde and Nairo Quintana are the leaders,” Intxausti told Diario Vasco. “I do not dislike the idea. I do not mind leaving the Giro and see how it goes in my Tour."

However, ex-teammate Rui Costa rode the Tour de France last year as a domestique for Valverde and Quintana and still managed to win 2 stages, so Intxausti knows that if his chance cmes, he must be ready and willing to take it:

“They [Valverde and Quintana] are rides to who can dispute the great events, in which you have to help them. When they are not, then you have your opportunities. This is to take advantage of. There are races for everyone."

This will come as a change of scenery for Intxausti as for the last two seasons, he has ridden the Giro-Vuelta double. In last seasons Giro, he won a stage and wore the maglia rosa for a day, before finish 8th on GC, his best ever overall finish in a Grand Tour.

He finished the year by winning the Tour of Beijing overall and taking the Queen Stage.

However, he believes there is much more to come from him in 2014 and beyond.

“Mentally I'm getting stronger, you see that there are goals that can be achieved, and you can reach them. I want to do better than in 2013 or at least try. I will go to the Tour instead of the Giro d' Italia. I do not mind the change but, before that, I will go to Paris-Nice, the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour of Romandie."

He is currently at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina, and the 27 year old is riding only for good condition for April, rather than personal success.

"I am trying to do things as best as I can and see how far I can go. I want to improve in time trials. Here in San Luis, I’ll see how I am with the time trial bike. Here, I’ll do a specific job for trial."