There is only half a year left of Maarten Tjallingii's professional cycling career. The Dutchman has done everything to say a worthy goodbye in the coming months: "I am really looking forward to the cycling season, I have trained like a beast."

The LottoNL Jumbo rider will start his season next Tuesday at the Tour Down Under. He hopes to be good immediately. "Last year the peloton rode me off the wheel," he admits in interview with ANP. His focus, however, is in the spring and mainly on the Hell of the North. The race is close to Tjallingii 's heart after he finished third in 2011. The icing on the cake is the start of the Giro d'Italia in his hometown of Arnhem.

"When it was announced, I knew I had to be there. To again play a major role in Paris-Roubaix and to ride the Giro in my own town are the main objectives," says Tjallingii. At the end of May, he will attend a follow-up course in neurolinguisticprogramming and will then work as a full-time personal coach for his own company Mii.