Giro champion Vinceno Nibali (Astana) is taken on his first competition since his grand tour triumph in this week's Tour de Pologne but the Italian has been far off the pace. With the Vuelta only a little more than three weeks away, Italian observers have expressed their concerns over his condition but the Astana leader himself is confident that he has time to reach his peak condition.

When Vincenzo Nibali started his first race since the Giro d'Italia on Saturday in the Tour de Pologne, his team made it clear that no miracles should be expected from their Italian start. Having been absent from competition for two months, it was all about regaining his best form while captaincy duties fell onto the shoulders of Alexandr Dyachenko.

That assessment has proved a fitting one as Nibali has been far off the pace in the two stages in the Italian Dolomites. Italian observers have already started to worry about the Vuelta which starts in less than four weeks and is Nibali's next big objective but the Italian feels that he has time on his side. On Sunday, he went into a long-distance breakaway to start gradually building his form.

“I knew it would be very difficult because I was away from racing for quite a bit, and I only had one big block of training in the mountains for two weeks before coming back here in Poland,” Nibali told Cyclingnews on yesterday's rest day. “Already, day by day, I’m starting to feel better. On Sunday I tried to go in the break so I could get into the rhythm of racing again and I think now is the right time to make these big efforts and to work hard. There’s still a lot of time before the Vuelta and I’m sure I’ll get there in good condition.”

However, Nibali knows that it is important to regain racing speed before the Spanish grand tour and so he has now confirmed his participation in next week's Vuelta a Burgos which is the traditional warm-up race for the Vuelta.

“It was already more or less in my programme but we weren’t certain because the two races are so close,” he said. “But seeing that there’s still a lot of time to go to the Vuelta after that, I’ve decided to go to Burgos rather than stay at home and train.”

When he won the Vuelta, Nibali made it clear that his next major target was the world championships on hime soil in Florence. That has prompted people to suggest that the Astana rider will only use the Vuelta as mere preparation but he was quick to refuse such speculation.

“I’ll see a bit as I go along,” he said. “The objective right now is certainly to get to the Vuelta in good condition and then day by day try to be up there. But if I find I don’t have the right condition, then maybe I’ll start thinking about stage wins instead and building towards the Worlds.”

Nibali has had a strong guard of Italian domestiques with Alessandro Vanotti, Valerio Agnoli and Paolo Tiralongo all having followed almost the same schedule as their Italian captain. Nibali himself has been promised a captaincy role on the Italian team for the worlds but his gregarios have not had similar assurances.

Nibali makes it clear that he would like his teammates to be selected for the squad but won't put any pressure on Italian coach Paolo Bettini.

“I’d like to see some of my teammates from Astana beside me at the Worlds but they have to win their place by showing that they’ve in great condition, and rightly so for a race like that,” he said. “It’s not for me to make certain decisions; that’s for the commissario tecnico.”

Right now Nibali is racing the third stage of the Polish tour which should be one for the sprinters. Starting at 17.00 you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.