Friday 15 January 2016 14:39, UK
Michal Kwiatkowski hopes Team Sky will help him develop into a Grand Tour contender but says he will spend his first season with the British squad targeting the spring Classics.
The 25-year-old Pole was signed from Etixx - Quick-Step this winter with the immediate goal of handing Team Sky a victory in one of the prestigious 'Monument' Classics and he will consequently ride Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in the coming months.
However, he also has long-term aspirations to challenge for wins over three weeks and wants to ride with Chris Froome at July's Tour de France in order to see first-hand what it takes.
Speaking at Team Sky's winter training camp in Mallorca, Kwiatkowski said: "I believe there is so much to achieve in the Classics, but of course, I'm thinking about one-week stage races and even the Grand Tours.
"What is my role going to be in the future? I cannot say straight away, but I want to become a Grand Tour racer. On the other hand, if you look at the races that I lost or almost won, I lost the races during climbing. That's the room for improvement in my racing. We have to work on that.
"I want to learn from Chris Froome on a race like the Tour de France. Being next to him in July would be an amazing feeling and also an amazing experience for me."
Kwiatkowski is already well aware of Froome's key attributes and has labelled the two-time Tour winner as the favourite to win the hilly Olympic Games road race in Rio in August.
Like Froome, Kwiatkowski travelled to Brazil to reconnoitre the course in November and believes the outcome will be decided purely by climbing strength, not tactics.
Froome hopes to win the Olympic road race as part of a potentially historic treble also including the Tour de France and Olympic time trial.
Kwiatkowski is the third person to endorse Froome's chances, after Eddy Merckx described him as the favourite for the Tour and Tony Martin said he was the favourite for the Olympic time trial.
"I did the recon in early November," Kwiatkowski said. "It was in the off-season, so for me it was even harder than I expected, going there without shape, but that is a race that the strongest rider is going to win, for sure. It's so difficult.
"It's a really long-distance race and the final climb is 8km long, with almost 4km really steep - sections of 14 or 15 per cent - and then we have got a slight descent for 1km and then the last 2.5km to 3km is slightly uphill - four, five, six per cent. There is no tactical game.
"I believe we have a strong [Polish national] team, with me and Rafal Majka, that we can play our role there and let's hope that it is going to be successful. But I would say Chris Froome is the favourite for this race."
Kwiatkowski joined Team Sky after deciding he needed a change of environment, and so far he feels vindicated in his decision.
He said: "I have been a professional rider since 2010 and each year I have made some improvements, but I have been at Etixx - Quick-Step for four years and I decided to move forward and join the best team in the world, Team Sky. There is no improvement when you don't want to change environment.
"I have to say, the team [Team Sky] is really well organised. I have had plenty of time to think about the season, to think about preparation, to think about my training and I feel much more supported here."
