Domenico Pozzovivo is fully recovered from the broken tibia and fibula he suffered in August and even ended the season on the bike despite still using crutches. He is now looking to his third season at AG2R La Mondiale and hopes to challenge for the podium in a grand tour and shine in some classics after havig finished fifth in both the Giro d'Italia and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2014.

Until he hit a cat in Piavenna, Domenico Pozzovivo had had a very consistent 2013 season and only missing the icing on the cake: his first win since 2012. He was 10th in the Tour de San Luis, 6th in the Tour of Oman, 5th in Roma Maxima, 6th in Tirreno-Adriatico, 8th in the Volta a Catalunya, 2nd in the Giro del Trentino, 5th in Liege, 5th in the Giro, abandoned the Tour of Switzerland and 7th in the Italian Championships. 

Those results make him approach the coming season with great ambitions.

"First, I want be competitive in some one-day races, like Liege-Bastogne-Liege. I thought I just had to enjoy it as a spectator, but instead I was a protagonist and finally finished 5th. Looking back, it would have been better to ride it differently, waiting to attack on the Cote de Saint-Nicolas. A good lesson, maybe it will be useful next year next year. Secondly, I can be ambitious in a grand tour. I may not be able to win but I can at least go for the podium. In the Giro d'Italia, I finished 5th," he says in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport.

In 2015, Pozzovivo may start at the Tour Down Under and also has the Giro d'Italia on his schedule while revealing that he likes the course for the Tour de France.

"We still have to make the schedule with the team. I may start early, at the Tour Down Under in Australia, and it would be a challenge because I have never done so before. Then I would have to stop to have the plate and screws removed from the tibia before I can return at Tirreno-Adriatuco. The schedule will include the Giro d'Italia and another grand tour, the Tour or the Vuelta. The Giro seems hard and complicated. There are a lot of tricky stages but that massive time trial is a worry for me. The Tour, on the other hand, with so many climbs and so little time trialling, would seem more suited to me," he said.

Pozzovivo has never done the French grand tour and has focused on the Giro, with a 9th place in 2008, an 8th place in 2012, a 10th place in 2013 and this year's 5th place. In 2013, he was 6th in the Vuelta a Espana. However, his manager Vincent Lavenu told Cyclingnews at the presentation of the Tour that the presence of cobbles made it unlikely that he would line up Pozzovivo at the race.

About his serious tibia and fibula injury, Pozzovivo confirms that "ultimately everything is good." 

"At first I thought the season was over. However, I recovered faster than expected and returned on October 1 at Milan-Turn. Four days later I races in Lombardy, but in retrospect it was crazy. I didn’t have enough training in my legs. I was pedalling crooked on the bike, and off the bike I was going around on crutches. However, until Berbenno I was with the best. Then, inevitably, the light went out. But I persevered and finished alone. It was beautiful because people recognized me, probably knew about my crash and encouraged me as if I were the first rider," he recalls.

Now he's relaxed, but wants to ride his bike. 

"I continued riding until the end of October to complete the rehabilitation. Now I have two weeks off, but will be difficult to respect it, because after ten days the desire to ride is stronger than the need to take it easy. At first, I will alternate between swimming and mountain biking. The first training camp with AG2R will be from November 17 to 21 in Montgenevre. The second will be in December in Spain. Then I will be fully focused on the bike," he says.

Meanwhile, he has started studies in Motor Sciences and Internet, after having completed his studies in economics.