"I'm training well. The place is lovely and the atmosphere is better on the beach than on the bike. But we are here to train, to build a good base after a mild winter that I hope will give us great satisfaction in the spring, if not before .”

Diego Ulissi speaks to Tuttobiciweb from Maspalomas where he has been since Monday and he will stay there until next Monday. It will be fifteen days of hard work in the warm conditions of the Canary Islands. "We have 27 degrees, it is amazing," he explains.

He is with teammates Manuele Mori, Federico Zurlo, Jan Polanc, Luka Pibernik and Marko Kump.

"We are a good team, strong and close-knit,” says the Tuscan. “Federico (Zurlo, ed.) is young but he is already integrated well into the group and I like him because he is responsive and attentive. He can really do great things, and I also hope that he can help me to good things during the entire season.”

Ulissi is in a good mood and when asked what he thought when he read statements from Giuseppe Saronni in La Gazzetta dello Sport where the Lampre-Merida manager asked his leaders to give much more, he does nothing to avoid the question: "He said that we must give more, we have to move on, right? I also expect and want a lot more from 2016. I hope it will be a much nicer year than the one just left behind. I want to win something bigger. It would take a great victory, but mostly I also ask for more continuity and I'm doing everything I need to do to get this.”

Will Ulissi be strong from the start? Maybe, but it is not a priority: "If I start well, it will be good, but I want to be the real Ulissi at the start of Tirreno-Adriatico. From that moment on, I hope to be up there. After this training camp, I will go back to Lugano, before moving to Tuscany with my family for the Christmas holidays. Then I will go back to Switzerland, first to pack my things and then I will leave on January 6 for Australia where my season will really start [at the Tour Down Under, ed.]-“

Ulissi will start the new season with a focus on the classics and stage wins at the Giro while a Tour de France debut has been postponed. "It's true that I'd like to make my debut in the Tour de France, but the team has its own needs and asked me to do the Giro and I will do it with pleasure and maximum effort. At 26 years of age and in my seventh professional season, I expected to be able to try to the roads of the Grande Boucle, but even my time will come.”