Nieve coy on Tour

Having won queen-stages in both the Vuelta and the Giro over the past year, one would expect Mikel Nieve to be aiming for the biggest race of them all next year: the Tour de France. Talking to the Diario de Navarra a couple of days ago though, the Leitza native was anything but certain about making his Tour debut next year. "Sure, I'd like to ride the Tour sometime, but it's not an objective for me at this moment in time", the featherweight climber - never one to get carried away - said matter-of-factly. Having done three Grand Tours in his career and finished inside the top-11 every single time, Nieve is a proven GT contender and would undoubtedly add something to the team in July. But his time trialling keeps letting him down. "My body is just not suited to it. I'm lightweight and I have to pay for it", he said. "I've ever only done three long ITTs, so it shouldn't be too hard to improve a little bit if I did some specific work on my time trial bike. I'll never be a good rider against the clock, but I can definitely improve." Nieve went on to say that he "thoroughly enjoyed" doing two GTs this year and that he might well do the same Giro-Vuelta combo next year.