Elia Viviani is keen to forget his first season with Cofidis Solutions Credit, where he failed to win a single race, and is calling on French teams to support him and his sprint group so they can rewind in 2021.

Viviani has four stage wins at the 2018 Giro d'Italia, a stage win at the 2019 Tour de France, as well as the Prudential RideLondon-Sully Classic, his second Hamburg EuroEyes Cyclassics, and a European in Italy. After two very successful seasons, including a road race win, he moved from Deceuninck-Quick Step to Cofidis.

He competed in both the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia this year, with his best finish in the Tour being 4th in Il Drellon and 5th in the Giro in Vilafranca Tirrena. While his successor at Dečuninck-Quick-Step, Sam Bennett, won two stages at the Tour and the green points prize and a stage win at the Vuelta a España, Viviani had little to celebrate and ended the season with many doubts.

"It's natural to be disappointed, because even in my neo-pro days I won three races," he said in a long interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport (opens in new tab), trying to analyze what went wrong.

"I admit that we were never at our best. Otherwise, we would have won at least once, despite the problems we had. I think it is important to analyze everything that went wrong: I thought it would be easy to recreate a sprint group around me, but it wasn't."

Viviani chose to leave the tried-and-true lead-out unit of the Dečuninck-Quickstep and Belgian teams when offered a much larger contract by Cofidis. He took his trusted veteran lead-out man Fabio Sabatini and track rider Simone Consonni and joined forces with experienced Italian director sportif Roberto Damiani.

He made his debut with Cofidis in the Santos Tour Down Under, but was hurt in a high-speed crash on stage 2 and never returned to his best. Sabatini was not selected for the Tour de France because Cofidis had to support Guillaume Martin and give Christophe Laporte a chance. Martin finished 11th overall at the Tour and won the mountains prize at the Vuelta a España.

Viviani continued to try to sprint throughout the season, but struggled due to the lack of a strong and well-developed lead-out train. He did not throw in the towel or publicly protest, preferring to end the season quietly.

"I think we have to share the responsibility 50-50. I am ready to accept my role," Viviani said of the team selection issue at Cofidis.

"Things have gone wrong since the Tour Down Under in January. The Tour of Oman was cancelled, so we went to the Volta ao Algarve. Tirreno-Adriatico got cancelled, so we went Paris-Nice.

"The fact that we didn't win means that we went through the season without the confidence we needed. I couldn't find a specific reason why it didn't work out. But if you are not mentally focused in cycling, things are going to get harder and harder."

La Gazzetta dello Sport is Philippe Gilbert, Alejandro Valverde, Vincenzo Nibali, Geraint Thomas, Tom Dumoulin, Rigoberto Urán, Chris Froome, Romain Bardet and Mark Cavendish, Fabio Aru and others have been away from winning longer than Viviani, he emphasized. Many of them have been seriously injured or are in the later stages of their careers.

Viviani is 31 and should still be near his peak. He is confident that he can come back in 2021, which will also be an important year on the track as Viviani attempts to win a second gold medal at the Olympics.

Viviani will not compete in this week's European track championships, but will begin preparing for 2021 and will once again mix road racing with track events. He is confident he can win again in 2021 if Cofidis gives him the support and consistency he needs.

"I have to learn from my mistakes and then I won't make the same ones again," he said, again asking Cofidis to back him 100%.

"You always have to race together to make a good sprint group," he said. Sabatini should have been a sure thing, not a question mark. You can't put a question mark on Sabatini's role. I am convinced that Conssoni will be even better."

Viviani is careful not to criticize the Cofidis team outright and has simple goals for 2021.

"If it's not there, I'm going to go find it. I don't want another season like this. Team trust is built on results. We are all on the same wavelength, we just have to make the right decisions."

"The goal for 2021 is simple and clear: win. I don't have any specific goals for 2021. Start at your best and stay there so you can be successful again."