After a bad crash in the opening road stage of the Vuelta a Espana ended his road season prematurely, David Tanner is looking to achieve the form he had this summer in 2016, after claiming his numbers hadn’t been better since he turned pro than they were in July this year.

"This is the first year, because owner Michel [Thetáz] only does one-year contracts, that I'd signed before the Tour," Tanner said from his base in Monaco to Cyclingnews. "Funnily enough, I signed at the Dauphiné and two-three weeks later I was on some of my best form in the last five years. I won a stage at the Tour of Austria and my numbers were the best they've ever been. Having that stress of your back helps with your head and just being more relaxed and getting down to the job, not worrying about the future holds."

Tanner said he was initially disappointed to miss IAM’s Tour de France team, but once he went to the Tour of Austria, he knew he was going well. After leading out Sondre Holst Enger to win stage one, Tanner took stage two and only bad luck stopped him winning two more stages. That was his first win since the 2010 Tour of Utah.

"I knew it was coming because I'd spent a few weeks at altitude and I knew my numbers were really good," he said of the stage 2 victory. "The week before I was at home and riding around there [Monaco] was the fastest I've ever ridden. I felt really good and the day before, on stage 1, the plan was to attack on the last hill and if I was caught then I'd lead my teammate out. The lead-out I gave him. it was impossible for anyone else to follow so I knew I had some special form. It was just a case of me putting it all together. I was basically on my own I the stage I won, the finish really suited me as there were a few corners so I hit out with about 800 metres to go into the first corner, sprinted into the next corner, went through the last corner then sprinted to the line."

"That was my first win in five years so it as pretty special to finally get some reward. I also get reward seeing teammates win after helping them and doing good performances but actually putting your hands in the air, it's a completely different feeling. I was asking myself that maybe it was better to not do the Tour and get a win. I think I could have actually win three stages there.”

Turning to 2016, Tanner will get some racing into his legs as early as possible, racing at home in the Tour Down Under. From there, his program will be relatively similar to 2015.

"Because I haven't raced for a long time I think it will be good to do Tour Down Under," he said. "With that I'll just leave a week before and fly with the guys from Europe. February is usually a month of work for me so I like to do Down Under then do more specific work on what I need to improve on at races like Ruta del Sol or Algarve. I'll look to do some altitude before Paris-Nice then it will be similar to past years with Milan-San Remo, Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, De Brabantse Pijl, and Amstel."

31 year old Tanner says he wants to return to the Giro in 2016, saying that while he does dream of riding the Tour one year, he doesn’t like constantly missing out on the Tour roster.

"I am going to ask to do the Giro because for myself if I am in the Tour pre-selection I am always one of the guys fighting for the last place. I've done that a few times and it doesn't really interest me any more, I'd like to do the Tour one year but it's not the be all and end all," he said.

Tanner wants to keep on helping the team to more wins and is refusing to put a set goal down for himself in terms of personal result next year.

"Being a part of team success, that's important for me. To get a win is so good for morale and to get a bit of reward for the work you put in. I am not going to say 'I want to win three races instead of one', just to keep the ball rolling the way it is," he said.