After suffering broken ribs, tibia and patella in a bad crash during stage one of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Peter Stetina is aiming to return to racing by the end of the year.

"My goals are always ambitious…," Stetina said in a teleconference with reporters on Wednesday. "I have to set my goals high, so I do plan on racing this year still, maybe extremely soon, basically as soon as I can get some basic fitness.”

"I know that I will be basically a shell of myself for the rest of this year but – and the BMC director team and medical team are behind this – we think if I can hop into a few races and help the guys early on, make the gruppetto in a few races, then it will set me up better going into the off season when I can really focus on left- and right-leg imbalances, regain the muscle mass that I've lost, and any lingering joint pain that may arise. I plan on being full strength by next year but I hope that you guys will see me a few times this year."

After the incident occurred, the UCI launched an investigation into the incident, which injure more than a dozen riders including Stetina, Sergio Pardilla and Adam Yates. Stetina hopes the organisers will be severely punished.

"I know the UCI was looking into it and I know that they have either compiled documents or have finished their investigation into the race," Stetina said. "I'm really hopeful they do more than just give the race a little slap on the wrist, which is looking like it could be a possibility."

Personally, he hasn’t ruled out taking legal action against the organisers himself and is considering his options.

"We are looking at all of our options still. It's a possibility that we will definitely open it up, but it's just that with international and Spanish laws, it's pretty complex…”

"I am taking it very seriously, not just for myself but for the entire peloton because this is just so out of the ordinary, just for riders' safety, and I don't want my cause to be brushed under the rug until something else bad happens.”

"We are trying to reform the sport in so many ways and rider safety is a hot topic, and I think that my crash can be one of the various examples of it, and so I think it should count for something."