Mikel Landa has become a key figure in cycling after his spectacular 2015 season that saw him finish third in the Giro d'Italia and win the queen stage of the Vuelta. Now he knows that he will be compared to the best and points to four big rivals: Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodriguez and former teammates Vincenzo Nibali Astana and Fabio Aru.

Landa (1989) was one of the three captains at the Media Day of Team Sky in Port d'Alcudia alongside Chris Froome and Michal Kwiatkowski. The climber has been asked about who considered his biggest rivals and barely hesitated: "Nibali is a rider that I've always admired and I will love to ride against him. Contador has been and is the best. Purito is always there and it will be nice to be up against him. And Aru because we will go from being teammates to being rivals,” he told BiciCiclismo.

Alava also underlined the strengths.

"Aru is very strong mentally, Nibali can attack everywhere, Contador is very strong physically and mentally and Purito has explosiveness like almost no other.”

Landa has joined Team Sky after two years at Astana from where he will miss "many people". "I've made some great friends, Luis Leon, Scarponi ... I have been a lot with Luis Leon, we shared a room in the Giro and the Vuelta, and he has helped me a lot and me very good advice," he said.

He is cautious about being seen as the successor of Contador and Alejandro Valverde.

 "There are more good runners besides me," he says. "It's nice when people point to you as the new top rider.  We'll see. I do not like to think much about it because it's more pressure. I prefer to live day by day,” he said.

His schedule includes the Tour of Valencia (February 3-7), Tirreno-Adriatico (March 9-15), Tour of the Basque Country (April 4-9), Giro del Trentino (April 19-22), maybe Liege-Bastogne-Liege (April 24), and the Giro d'Italia (May 6-29).