The 2015 edition of the Giro d’Italia proved to be a major breakthrough for a then 25-year-old Basque rider from the Astana team. Indeed. Many observers felt that the Astana team management blundered by not letting Mikel Landa ride his own chances on the decisive mountain stage, ordering him instead to make way for Fabio Aru. However, third place overall and two mountain stage wins did constitute a giant leap forward for the Basque climber. This year, Landa will spearhead Team Sky’s bid to win the Giro d’Italia in his first ever grand tour as team leader.

Recently, he demonstrated that his form is more than decent by winning the Giro del Trentino.

“I feel in very good shape and very motivated. After winning the Giro del Trentino, my morale is very high and I am ready to go for it,” he told Cyclingnews. “I think I’m pretty much on the same level [as last year], to be honest. But, I’m more experienced as a racer and that’s why I could win Trentino this year.”

During Trentino Landa voiced his slight surprise at the lack of fierce competition from Astana team leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).

However, Landa is adamant that the Sicilian will be one of his main rivals in the forthcoming Giro.

“I do not know if he’s still not at 100 percent or if he was deliberately concealing his real condition. Nevertheless, I thought he was going to put up more of a fight. Either way, he is a favourite for the Giro d’Italia.”

Given Landa’s expertise as a climber, it is hardly surprising that his time trialing ability is surrounded by question marks as he lost four minutes to Alberto Contador in the 2015 Giro time trial at Valdobbiadene.

“We’ve been working on it a lot, the aerodynamics and so on and I’ve been riding on the TT bike a lot over the winter. I hope there will be an improvement in the Giro d’Italia. The team has helped me a lot to adapt to my new environment and has been very supportive.”

Many contenders, not enough tough mountain stages

Most pundits point to Landa, Nibali and Movistar’s Valverde as the top contenders but Landa sees other potential threats.

“Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), with all these time trials, he’s going to be a real threat. Rigoberto Urán (Cannondale) who has been second in the Giro d’Italia twice. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), who is very experienced in Grand Tour racing. They are all as much favourites as me.”

If anything worries Landa, it is the absence of truly majestic mountain stages in this year’s strangely subdued Giro route.

“There’s no really hard mountain stages with a summit finish, which is what I like the most. There is a 10 kilometres opening, flat time trial, which does not sound so long, but it is still 10 kilometres. Then the 40 kilometres mid-race time trial that is basically flat and which will be a factor against me. However, it is what it is and there are some very hard mountain stages, too.”

Landa is still undecided on his participation in this year’s Tour de France. For now, the Giro is his sole objective.

“We haven’t discussed beyond the end of the Giro. First of all, we want to get through the Giro, see what kind of condition I’m in and then we’ll take a decision after that.”

The Giro d’Italia kicks off in Holland on Friday.