An anonymous performance of Vincenzo Nibali at the Tour de San Luis, where his name has been brought up only once after a crush he experienced on the penultimate stage, is said to be rather a part of a plan and consequence of “a pretty relaxing winter”, then a serious reason to be worried about his ability to compete at the level he has shown last season.

Even though Nibali has finished his first race of the 2014 season, Tour de San Luis, 44th overall, 22:58 minutes behind the clearly unstoppable Colombian Nairo Quintana of Movistar, last Giro d’Italia champion is seemingly satisfied with his disposition, yet aware that he stays slightly behind the riders who have undergone their preparation period more thoroughly during winter.

While the Astana leader admits that he had a rather relaxing winter and stays slightly behind the schedule with his current disposition, he remains absolutely frank about reaching his top performance just in time to set up the clash with Christopher Froome of Team Sky at the Tour the France and few major one-week races to be held before la Grande Boucle kicks-off in July.

As it was announced during the winter-break, Nibali resumed his cooperation with Italian trainer Paolo Slongo after the duo was forced to split up as Vuelta a Espana and Giro d’Italia champion moved from Cannondale to Astana. Slongo’s thorough knowledge of Nibali’s mentality and the philosophy of working highly suitable for the Italian cyclist encouraged management of the Kazakh team to hire Slongo for 2014 season, in order to help their leader to reach his ambitious objectives.

Now, Italian coach confirms the words of Nibali and ensures, that everything goes exactly, as it was planned. Nibali himself is very happy with a shape of his body at the season’s opening, as loosing weight after periods spent off the bike was always his weakness.

"I'm in line with where I want to be. I've lost a kilo or two and I'm pedaling better. It's been a good start to the season," Nibali told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"I've spoken to (my team coach) Paolo Slongo and he's not worried about anything. In the time trial I was able to push 10 extra watts. Lots of riders came here with better form than me, which means they've worked hard during the winter, whereas I had a pretty relaxed winter."

Sicilian rider claims, that even though he wasn’t able to train regularly enough during the winter-period, his performance at the Tour de San Luis wasn’t a disappointment for him and caused no stress.

"It's normal to get a bit stressed out when you travel a lot and you can't train as you want. I'm a bit behind but it's okay," he said.

As it is well known, Nibali’s main objective in 2014 season is a highly anticipated battle with defending champion Christopher Froome at the Tour the France, but the duo will meet on few other occasions earlier this year. Nibali is set to clash with Froome at the Tour of Oman held in February, and is very keen to replicate his performance from last year’s Tirreno-Adriatico where he has beaten the Briton after a final attack launched in the pouring rain. However, Astana team manager Alexander Vinokourov would prefer Italian cyclist to participate at Paris-Nice instead, to get the taste of French roads before heading to la Grande Boucle.

"Vinokourov wants me to ride Paris-Nice but I'd prefer to be at Tirreno-Adriatico. We'll see, let's hope so," he said.