Mikel Landa celebrated his 26th birthday surrounded by his new Team Sky teammates in Mallorca where he stayed for 15 days to adapt to the philosophy of the team led by Dave Brailsford and Chris Froome as quickly as possible and start preparing his assault on the Giro d’Italia in May. "I am not intimidated by being the leader. That motivates me," he says.

Landa arrived at the operations center of Team Sky on December 6 and will stay until December 21. "Those are 15 days to meet all the people and learn about their way of working." The Basque climber has discovered "a family." "They are very nice people, used to welcoming new people. Dave Brailsford is very aware of us every day and in my case I have integrated quickly and been at ease. Perhaps it looks more more like a rigorous teem from the outside than it really is. For now, everything is going very well," he tells BiciCiclismo from Alcudia.

His day is based on training and rest. "I get up at 8 in the morning. A quarter to ten we have a small meeting to know how we will be training. We divide into groups, the Classics, the Tour and the Giro. After training we get something to eat, massage and at seven thirty we are having dinner again. The day goes by so fast and we are soon asleep again. It becomes a little odd but we are getting the work done,” he adds.

In 2015, Landa experienced a breakthrough: he won the Aia stage in the Tour of the Basque Country; he won two stages and finished third in the Giro d'Italia; he won the queen stage of the Vuelta a Espana in Andorra and helped Aru get to Madrid in the red jersey; and he launched Nibali to victory in Il Lombardia. His new challenge is to be a leader at Team Sky. "Maybe people regard it as complicated and I will now have wheels to follow. When everyone is waiting for you, it is harder. Now I feel the responsibility of having a team and I have to get it right although it does not intimidate me. It motivates me. I like the responsibility. If I have legs this year, everything will be easier. After the Giro I got confidence in myself and maturity and I could confirm it in the Vuelta and at the end of the year. The truth is that it has given me peace of mind to face this year," he says.

The start of his calendar is defined: Volta a la Valecniana, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of the Basque Country, Giro del Trentino, the Giro and perhaps Liege. "Now it is about doing the hours, quiet, in groups, and in January it will be time to train harder. The schedule until the Giro has to be progressive and once I will start to compete, I'll get pace and intensity. For the team, this year’s Giro will be almost as important as the Tour and they're going to gathr a group at my side to live up to expectations," he explains.

Following the Sky tradition, he will train at altitude on Mount Teide, a new experience for him. "We expect to have a training camp between Valencia and Tirreno. I do not have much experience at altitude and that must be respected. So we decided to do it some time before the Giro so that we have time to rectify things; if it's going very well, we may repeat it. Last year I did nothing at altitude and before the Giro this year I will not do much either. So far I have been more on my own. Team Sky control things a lot more and try to prove their method,” he said.

Technicians and trainers of Team Sky also work with him to improve his performance in the time trial. "On Sunday I was at the velodrome all day. They work hard and have a lot of outstanding people to make me improve: I can be more comfortable with one handlebar instead of another, with different measures and there are many people working on this and hopefully we will get a result. It gives enough rage to see that there are only small differences after a stage of 200 kilometers with five climbs when you can lose four minutes in time trial of 40 kilometers. So I will try not to make that happen and I work hard to not lose any GC options. But I cannot lose my ability to make a difference on the climbs,” he concludes.