'I’ll do a bit less with Tadej Pogačar and more for myself': Davide Formolo hopes to be 100% for Giro d'Italia

Davide Formolo says that he'll "do a bit less with Tadej Pogačar" and more for himself as he looks at taking a leading role within the team.

Formolo has ridden as a key domestique for Pogačar over the last two Tours de France with the Italian climber helping the Slovenian star to two yellow jerseys on the bounce, however, it will be more about the Giro d'Italia in 2022.

The 29-year-old has laid out a plan that would see him be in peak fitness for the Giro and a chance to go for his own objectives.

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In an interview with CyclingNews, Formolo said: "I shouldn’t be doing the Tour next year, I’ll be concentrating on the Giro.

"The plan is to only do the Giro so I’ll be more focused. After the crash this year, I was already thinking about the Tour by the last week. Next year, I wanted to be 100 per cent focused on the Giro."

This was surprising news as it was assumed that UAE Team Emirates new signing for 2022, João Almeida who is joining the team from Deceuninck - Quick-Step, would be the general classification leader for the squad at the Italian Grand Tour.

"I’ll play my own cards more next year, so we wanted to try this. I’ll do a bit less with Tadej and more for myself, so we’ll have different preparation," he added.

Formolo has shown that he can perform in the hilly one-day races such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Strade Bianche, finishing second in both over 2019 and 2020. But the former Italian champion is unsure as to whether he will ever be good enough to try and win a Grand Tour.

"For the big Classics, I certainly feel ready enough to say I’m capable of winning them. For the Grand Tours, some more water probably needs to pass under the bridge.

"I need a bit of time and maybe the moment will never come. Right now, I don’t feel ready to say that I can go to a Grand Tour to win it, but I can go there trying to be in the top-10 or maybe the top-7 or so if everything goes well. But there are a lot of unpredictable things that can happen."

Formolo has managed to finish in the top 10 of the Giro twice in 2017 and 2018 as well as ninth at the Vuelta a España in 2016, so a top seven is not out of the question.