Alexander Kristoff will return to the Giro d'Italia in 2020, skipping the Tour de France for the first time in seven years since 2012.

The Norwegian had a strong 2019 season, winning his first major spring classic since 2015 in Ghent-Wevelgem, as well as six other races and a podium finish in the Tour de Flanders.

However, despite signing a new two-year contract with UAE Team Emirates, the 32-year-old's options are limited at the 2020 Tour as Fernando Gaviria is the favorite sprinter and Tadey Pogacar and Fabio Aru are in contention for the overall title.

"It's not 100% ideal," Christophe told Cycling News at a recent team training camp in Spain, trying to find the positive side.

"As long as I've had kids, I've never taken a summer vacation. My summer vacation was always like, 'My dad is in France.'"

"I would love to do the Tour again in the future. Maybe it will be my last Tour. I'm starting to get old. Still, I hope I'll have the chance to go back."

Christophe, who will be competing in the Giro, will have a difficult balancing act as he will be in perfect shape for the spring classics, beginning with Milan-San Remo on March 22 and ending with Paris-Roubaix on April 12.

After starting the 2020 season on the Iberian Peninsula with Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Clásica de Almería, and Volta ao Algarve, Christophe will be in Belgium for the so-called "opening weekend" of the After a taste of the classics, he will begin the spring season in earnest in Paris-Nice.

"It's hard to balance the Giro with being in perfect shape from San Remo to Roubaix, and with less than a month to go, there's no time to start the Giro in top form.

"We won't compromise. I will focus everything on the classics and if I do well there, my season will already be good. I am very motivated for the Giro and will try to get back on track in a short time."

"After the Classics I might take a few days off before going for the Giro, there is a limit to how much I can drop in a month, and if I have one or two good days, that's enough."

If the 2019 Tour is indeed Christophe's last Tour, he will end up bitterly disappointed. After a strong spring and a decent second half of the season, Christophe was a big disappointment in the Tour last year.

It was also a big disappointment for the entire UAE Team Emirates, with each rider underperforming and rumors circulating that a change in sports drinks caused riders to absorb too much water.

Christophe admitted that this was part of the problem, but revealed that there was a larger reason why the riders were overweight.

"There were a lot of things going on. At the end of the day, the whole team was too heavy. I started the Tour at 77.9 kg, and a few days later I was almost 84 kg. That makes it hard to perform.

"I think the problem was that I took in too much energy. Believe it or not, there are days when it's not that hard, and if you eat too much or drink too much, you actually take in too many calories. The body absorbs a lot of water and I gained a few pounds there, but I also gained a few extra pounds of fat because I ate too much.

"Maybe there wasn't enough monitoring, but the doctors are trying to figure out why and how to fix it. The team saw what happened, worked on it, and already performed very well in the Vuelta. The team hired a new nutritionist to give them more advice on what to do at home. It was a one-time mistake and they will not make the same mistake this year. "

Christophe often faces question marks about his weight, and in 2017 he was told by his old friend Katusha Alpecin that he was "too heavy." However, in a sport where being lightweight is so important, Christophe believes that being "a little too heavy" is one of the reasons for his success in the spring of 2019.

"In 2018 I was skinnier, maybe I felt lighter in the race, but in the end I was empty; in 2019 I was heavier, maybe I suffered more during the race, but at the end I still had some gas left. [Too light and you lose power. Maybe a little too heavy this year, but I also had enough energy to handle it."

That's exactly what happened in a particularly frenetic Ghent-Wevelgem, when he attacked before the Kemmelberg and secured his position in the group sprint for victory.

"At the start of that race I didn't feel great, but by the end I felt good.

A week later, Christophe finished third in the Tour de Flanders, his first monumental podium since winning that race in 2015.

"These two races gave me confidence that I could still run at the top level. I had a few top finishes, but I was missing the podium. That's what I'm chasing as a professional."

"I always knew that if everything went right, I could be on the podium. This year, I have one more little gear to add and I am able to keep up with the stronger riders again.

As for whether he can win the Monument again? I believe it is possible. I have the endurance. If I can get through the hard part with about an hour to go before the finish, I have a great chance."