Michal Kwiatkowski has had a breakthrough season this year with plenty of opportunities to lead his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team in the biggest stage races. Next year things will change when Rigoberto Uran joins the squad but the young Pole has no trouble putting his services at the disposal of his Colombian teammate.

Having mostly been known as a strong time trialist, Michal Kwiatkowski has made the world aware of his versatile talents in what has been a breakthrough 2013 season for the young Pole. As part of a sprint and classics focused Omega Pharma-Quick Step team, he has had plenty of chances to take his own chances in stage races and he has grabbed them with both hands.

He put his improved climbing on show in the Tour de San Luis when he finished 12th after having led the race along the way and went on to finish 2nd behind teammate Tony Martin in the Volta ao Algarve. His real breakthrough came in the Tirreno-Adriatico when he battled against the likes of Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Chris Horner and finished 4th overall. Later in the season he showed his versatility in the Ardennes when the twice finished in the top 5 and he led the youth classification at the Tour de France for several days before finishing 11th overall.

Next year things will be more complicated for the Pole. Rigoberto Uran will arrive from Sky and has been designated to lead the team in the Tour. This leaves Kwiatkowski with fewer personal opportunities and he may have to find back into a domestique role. At just 23 years of age, Kwiatkowski is, however, happy to get the chance to learn from another great champion.

"I am kind of flexible," he told CyclingQuotes.com after having won the world team time trial championships. "I don't have any problems helping anyone. I know that I can also get a lot of help from the others. It depends of the condition of the riders during the race. We will see."

"I am happy to know that Rigoberto will come to the team because I know that I can learn a lot from the best riders, from Mark [Cavendish], from Tony Martin, from Tom Boonen. They are such great champions. I am still young and I need to learn a lot. It's going to be a new experience to have such a good climber in the team."

CyclingQuotes.com also spoke with Kwiatkowski about his chances in Sunday's world championships road race. You can read more about that in a later article.