How does a cyclist spend Christmas? Tuttobiciweb asked promising Valerio Conti who turned professional with Lampre-Merida in 2014 and has won the 2014 GP Beghelli and a stage of the 2015 Tour of Japan. Conti lives in Rome with father Franco , mother Grazia and his older brother Marco who was also a lover of cycling but only as an amateur.
 

"We have a traditional Christmas at home with our relatives," he told the Italian site. "On Christmas Eve, we will have dinner with fish. The next day we will have meat but we alternate each year. And in those two days I do not miss anything: I eat like everyone else! Later I return to my usual life but at least I want to enjoy those moments. We will be around twenty at my house.

"My family is close to each other. We're fine with the simple things, we have our traditions and it is always so good. To me it is perhaps the only moment of relaxation until the Epiphany, the moment to be with family and friends."

Conti has not changed his Christmas much since turning professional.

"The approach has always remained the same," he said. "The beauty is that we are always more or less the same people and we celebrate in the same way."

Conti also uses the opportunity to express his hopes for the 2016 season.

"I want to do a high level season, as I expect to do," he said. " It isthe third year at the pro level and I think I begin am ready to make a small step. During these two years, Lampre-Merida have taught me so much and now I start to believe in the right technicians who follow me perfectly. My thoughts are on important goals like a stage in the Giro d'Italia or a WorldTour race.

"My program includes the Giro d'Italia and I'll also do Tirreno-Adriatico. I should do some classics in the North like the Amstel Gold Race and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. They are races that I have tried and that I really like. They give you so much of that adrenaline that exceeds what you feel him in all the other races."