What is your first memory involving a bike?

When I lived in Rome when I was five my dad bought a bike that was way too big for me and I remember sitting on it and actually crying because I hated it so much. It didn’t fit and I felt like I was going to die!

Luckily it’s been somewhat of a change since then! It’s ironic that I hated it then and love it now.

What is for favorite race and why?

For me it’s the Tour Down Under. It’s the first race I did with Garmin-Sharp so it’s the first race I did as a WorldTour rider. It’ such an awesome thing to be racing in your own country. I think I did 85 race days last year and only five were in Australia. It’s such a nice race, the weather is great and having all the Aussie fans there is just brilliant.

If you were not a professional cyclist what career would you have pursued?

Before I became a rider, in any professional sense, I was studying philosophy at university so I would probably be in some dungeon office thinking about things that are irrelevant to the world. And not making any money doing it!

What do you think is a little-know fact about you?

I’ve been playing saxophone for over ten years and love playing guitar/bass guitar. I dabble on the piano a little bit. Music is everything for me.

I dabbled in the school bands; but me and friend and his brother have a little jam band back home. We don’t have a name yet though.

What do you do for fun besides cycling?

Actually fishing, believe it or not. I really love it; sort of takes you to another world. A lot of people think it’s quite boring, for me I’m just locked-in for however many hours I’m doing it and it’s something I try to do as much as possible.