Vincenzo Nibali, who will be in his final year of his contract with Astana in 2016, has told Cyclingnews that he remains determined and focused for the new season. Even if 2015 was a difficult year, he will have some big goals with grand tours and Olympics.

A few days ago, general manager Alexander Vinokourov explained that Nibali will be the Astana leader at the Giro d'Italia and Fabio Aru will have the leadership at the Tour de France. "It seems like there are a lot of doubts about my programme but I don't think so. There's still time to think about my race programme and especially the races around the Grand Tours. I'm not excluding either the Giro d'Italia or Tour de France at this point."

"The Giro d'Italia could be my first goal but I don't think having both me and Aru at the Tour de France isn't a problem either", he added. "This year Movistar had both Quintana and Valverde and worked well together. They could have perhaps done even better and beaten Froome thanks to their combined strength. Me and Fabio get on pretty well, we've proved it several times and so I think we can be a good duo for the Tour de France. We shouldn't forget that the Tour is a massive goal but very difficult to get right and win."

He has had time to look at the course for the Giro.  "Looking at the maps and the profiles, it seems very well designed and finely balanced. There are several key stages which should make it a good race, so that inspires me a lot."

However, he would also like to ride the Tour de France which is regarded as the best preparation for the Olympic event, a major goal for Nibali. "I watched the route presentation on television. It's a very technical course, with some important time trial stages. It's arguably not as hard as this year's race but it'll be a tough race as always because everyone is always at their very best at the Tour de France. Of course it's always the riders who make the race. After the Tour, there's also the Olympic road race to think about. It's been described as a hard and hilly race, so it'll be a difficult race to prepare and peak for. It's a very long race, the national teams are very small and so it'll be a bit of a lottery too. I'm also not fast in a sprint, so to win I know I've got to have a great day and produce a special ride. I'll get a chance to see the route in January before travelling on to the Tour de San Luis."