Over the past five years, Steve Morabito has been one of the most important domestiques for Cadel Evans. After the 2011 Tour de France winner has decided to retire, the Swiss leaves the BMC camp to join FDJ in 2015.

"It was time for a change of air. Cadel had announced his retirement which was also an opportunity for me," Morabito told radsport-news.com. At Marc Madiot's team, he will have a role similar to the one he had at BMC: luxury domestique in the mountains. "With Thibaut Pinot, it will be a nice project and a new challenge," said Morabito who is already looking forward to the collaboration with the rider who finished third in the Tour de France.

The 31-year-old was reasonable satisfied with his final season in the BMC jersey. "It was a very long year of ups and downs," said Morabito, who selected the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de Suisse and the first part of the Vuelta a Espana as his highlights, before adding: "I could have done without the crashes in the third week of the Giro and the second week of the Vuelta."

After he had finished a respectable 25th in the Giro, he left the Vuelta a Espana after stage 11. "The crashes have also prevented me from achieving really good results in the GCs," Morabito said about his performance in the two grand tours.

He delivered his best personal performance in his home country during the summer. Thanks to a fourth place in the final stage, he finished sixth in the Tour de Suisse. "I was mainly very pleased with my performance in the mountains," the climber said.

A few days later, he finished third in the Swiss championships. "For me, that was a bit of a disappointment because more was possible," said Morabito who didn't achieve a personal win but was part of team that won the Giro del Trentino time trial.

In the Tour of Poland, Morabito showed that he is more than a climber when he finished fourth in the final time trial in Krakow. The Vuelta ended after just 11 days but he showed his good form when he finished 13th in the GP Wallonie in mid-September.

Nonetheless, he was not selected by the Swiss Federation for the three-rider team for the Worlds. "That was a disappointment for me," he said.