Owain Doull (Team Ineos), who won his first Grand Tour last month at the Vuelta a España, is looking to improve his spring 2020 classic campaign after signing a new two-year deal.

The former track rider has been with Team Ineos since 2017, but it took him until his third year in the WorldTour before he broke through in the Grand Tour. He rode as a domestique throughout the race, finishing 71st in Madrid. The result was hardly controversial, but the fact that the Welshman managed three weeks of consistent racing will certainly get next season off to a good start.

"I really enjoyed the Vuelta. At first I thought my head or legs would fall off in the second or third week, but as the race went on, I felt myself growing," Duru recently told the press.

"At first I felt it was tough to race so many days in a row, but I found my rhythm and found my balance. I'm looking forward to next year, and I'd love to get another belt under my belt."

Doull had hoped to make his Grand Tour debut in 2018, his second year at the World Tour level. However, due to the nature of the Team Sky/Team Ineos stage race lineup, he missed out. According to Doull, just making the Vuelta team this year was a step in the right direction.

"Especially with this team, we put a lot of emphasis on the Grand Tours. Especially in this team, the Grand Tour is very important. A lot of the riders told me that competing in the Vuelta would prepare them for next year when they start training after the off-season. Hopefully that will lead to further progress in the classics."

Dool took an unexpected second place in the Coure Brussel-Coulomb this past February. He completed the remainder of the 2019 Spring Classics with Milan-San Remo, E3 Harelbeke, Tour de Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix.

The spring 2020 campaign is Dole's first major goal of the season, and he hopes to score another outstanding performance as soon as possible. If he can ride as well as he showed in the coule earlier this year, he may have an even bigger responsibility on his shoulders.

"The classics will be the main focus again. I want to improve on last year's run in the opening weekend and lead into the spring main block, such as Harelbeke and Ghent-Wevelgem," Doull said.

"We want to go deeper into the finals. Also, with so many competitors in Ineos, I need to show my strength early on and get the opportunity to race."