Joaquim Rodríguez has outlined his ambitions for the 2016 season at the launch of the Katusha team. The Spanish rider who finished 2nd in the World Tour rankings was speaking at the team’s training camp in Calpe, Spain.

“I have a great feeling here at camp,” Rodríguez said. “In general, the weather has been good so we’ve enjoyed training. It is also nice to see how fast the new guys have integrated into the group. This is not so easily accomplished with all of our nationalities, but we know how to handle this.”

“I find it most remarkable that no one is nervous at this camp – there is so much less stress than in other years. All of our 2015 riders have good confidence and our new guys like Van den Broeck and Taaramäe are already relaxed about the team. That helps, too.”

Coming off a disappointing 2014 season, Joaquim Rodríguez looked to find form in 2015 and the Spanish rider once again achieved some great successes including winning two stages on the way to the overall at the Tour of the Basque Country, two stages at the Tour de France as well as a stage in his home tour of the Vuelta a España where he placed second on the final podium. His list of career wins is long – what do these recent wins mean to the Spaniard?

“It was a key moment for me when I first won that stage in Tour of the Basque Country,” he said. “As you know, 2014 was a disastrous season for me, so I was eager to start 2015 and had many training kilometres in my legs. I really like this race, Tour of the Basque Country, and when I won there this was a key moment to me, making me feel I was on the right track again.”

“It showed I was ready in the beginning of the season. If you were to ask me for my most beautiful moment of 2015, and maybe of my entire career, I would answer the stage in the Tour de France to Plateau de Beille. It is a stage I really like. And there were so many fans from Andorra and also my family was there. It rained like hell and it was a spectacular final.”

At this stage of his career, Rodríguez knows what works and what doesn’t in his training and racing program and the Spaniard likes to return to the tried and true formula that has produced success for him in past years. His goals for 2016? More of what we’ve seen in years prior, he says.

“Three goals: Ardennes, Tour and Vuelta. In Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège I have really good chances to win. I will go for it. Then I will go to the Tour, again with podium ambitions,” Rodríguez said.

“At my age you don’t start to change your objectives any more. I proved with my Vuelta podium last year that I am still capable of reaching such heights. If I see in the Tour that I lose time or have a bad day, I will go again for stage wins, like in 2015.”

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