After taking ninth in the Tour de France this season, Etixx-QuickStep’s Dan Martin is already planning to attempt to improve that result in 2017, despite not knowing the course yet.

"I'm looking forward to going there next year with perhaps even more focus on GC than this year," the 30-year-old told Cyclingnews. "We need to wait and see the courses but the Tour is where it's at."

Martin says he has learnt that you need to be less aggressive at the Tour than at the Vuelta, where he was seventh overall two years ago.

"Some might question that but I learnt that the Tour is different to a race like the Vuelta. It definitely cost me on a few occasions. It cost me a bit of time. I was six seconds off seventh but it's so close. I don't think we ever expected it to be that close and that's partly why I was so aggressive. You can never call that and I learnt how to ride GC at the Tour. At the Vuelta you can be aggressive and get away with it but at the Tour everyone is so on their 'A-game' that you can go into the red too much and pay for it."

He has had a slow build up after the Tour and Olympics, but Martin is hopeful he can retake his Il Lombardia crown, after winning the Italian Monument in 2014.

"Lombardia is a race that's been good for me before. That's part of why I took break after Rio because last time I did the Tour I just kept training and kept going and just ran out of juice. I took a real break this time and I've used this race to get the legs going again for the big season finale. I hope it's a nice way to finish the year."