After a disappointing final season with Astana, Jacob Fuglsang heads to the start-up country of Israel in 2022, seeking refreshment after a year plagued by illness and injury.

The 36-year-old, who is making the move after nine years with the Kazakhstan team, suffered a virus at the Tokyo Olympics, a broken collarbone and scapula at the Benelux Tour, and side effects from his second COVID-19 vaccine shot at the Tour de France.

Next summer, a year after the Tour, where he retired on the last day, the race will head to Denmark for the Grand Depart. Fuglsang, a Danish rider born in Geneva, said that competing in the Tour, which opens with three stages in his home country, will be a major goal for him this season.

"Of course, one of my goals is to participate in the Tour de France, which starts in Denmark," Fuglsang told Cycling News at the Israel Startup Nation "homecoming" camp in Tel Aviv.

"It's something special for all Danish riders and I would love to have that opportunity. I'm pretty relaxed about it and I'm pretty open to the team's ideas and ambitions for the Grand Tour."

Fuglsang, who finished seventh in the 2013 Tour and sixth in the Giro d'Italia, said, however, that he is no longer eyeing the overall classification battle in the Grand Tours.

"If the team wants to do it, I will do GC," he said. But three weeks is a bit difficult and I don't think it's realistic."

"First of all, I would like to do Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico with a good result. I would like to win the Criterium du Dauphiné again, or win the Tour de Suisse, and then go for the stage and mountains jersey in the Tour or another Grand Tour."

Fuglsang has won not only stage races, including two wins in the Dauphiné and 14 top-10 finishes in other WorldTour one-week races, but in recent years has won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia, Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, and a podium finish at La Flèche Wallonne, he is also strong in classic races.

However, cobbled classics have never been contested in the past for Fuglsang, with the Tour de Flanders (25th in 2016) and Paris-Roubaix, although he did finish second in an impressive cobbled stage at the 2014 Tour.

But that could change in 2022. Fuglsang has admitted that he is interested in returning to Flanders, and has even admitted that he is interested in trying Paris-Roubaix before retiring.

"We still have to discuss the calendar in the next few days and work things out, but I would like to go for Flanders again," Fuglsang said. 'I've asked for Astana every year since I ran my only Flanders in 2016. I've asked Astana every year since I ran Flanders in 2016.

"I haven't looked at the calendar, but with Roubaix moving around and the Classics being a little different, maybe we'll have a better chance to go for Flanders and Amstel before Flèche and Liège.

"I would love to, and Roubaix is a race I would like to run at least once or twice in my career. I think it's a race I should try at least once, but maybe I won't be able to do it the following season. I was happy because I didn't make it [this year], but if you look back at the 2014 Tour de France, when Boom won and Nibali was in yellow, I was second. So maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it was raining."

Fuglsang is making a fresh start at ISN with teammate Ugo Ure and Steve Bauer of Directeur Sportif from Astana. The three have long been rumored to be moving to Jean Bélanger's Premier Tech, but ISN boss Sylvain Adams insisted last week that nothing has been decided on that front yet.

Fuglsang himself has said that he would have moved to another team had Belanger agreed to another sponsorship deal. The company has ties to Qhubeka NextHash and was close to a deal with BikeExchange before negotiations stalled.

"At some point this year I had a discussion with Jean at Premier Tech and we agreed that I would stay with him wherever he went.

"That's probably why we are a group. I don't know if Premier Tech came in here or if Sylvan took over the whole group, but I think it was more like Sylvan said, 'OK, I can use these people and I would be happy to have them join the team. Israel was one of the teams we had already talked to in August and they wanted to get me. I had to decide what to do, and this is what happened.

Regardless of how the sponsorship situation resolves itself, Fuglsang will remain with ISN and will enter 2022 having overcome the hardships of 2021. Aside from his third place at the Tour de Suisse, he spent most of the summer suffering from various ailments, and his season ended abruptly with a crash at the Benelux Tour.

"All in all, it was a disappointing year," he said. I tried to take a different approach." We agreed with Astana that we would start the Classics easy and be ready.

"Then I was able to finish third in the Tour de Suisse and that was one of my goals, but of course in the Tour de France I got vaccinated a month before and after the Tour de Suisse. I think that ruined the Tour de France for me.

"I'm going to get the vaccine no matter what. But it could have been timed a little differently." I already had the first shot after the first race block. Then I went to the training camp in Tenerife and did all the tests, including lactate levels, which were super high compared to normal. I never felt good in training, but I never felt bad. Still, I was able to train and come to Switzerland feeling strong."

"I had the same feeling after the second shot, it seemed like I missed 10 percent at the top. I think that means the vaccine worked. It wasn't perfect timing."

In July, Fuglsang's Tour ended early due to food poisoning and carried over to the Olympic road race a week later. Returning to Rio, he won a silver medal and finished 12th in August, but for Fuglsang this result only highlighted what might have been.

"I was very damaged going into the Olympics and was in bed almost the entire time there. Luckily I managed to pull through the day before the race and put in an amazing performance for myself and for everyone who saw what I went through."

"I was very happy with my performance.

"But it wasn't what I wanted it to be. But it wasn't what we were hoping for. After the race was over, I was a little disappointed to think that I could have given that performance in that number of days.

Fuglsang, who will turn 37 at the end of next March, has a three-year contract that runs until he is 39, and it is not unreasonable to think that this may be his last contract in the pro peloton.

Even though parkour is unlikely to suit his riding style, he is still aiming to compete in the next Olympics in Paris in 2024. After that, he will analyze the lay of the land and decide what to do. In any case, for now, he is not thinking about the end.

"I hope to end up at the Olympics in Paris in three years. I know it's going to be difficult with the Danish powerhouses waiting in the wings, and maybe the parcours there doesn't suit me as a rider, but apart from that, that's where the goal is for me."

"At the moment I don't feel tired from racing and I don't feel like I'm 36 years old. I feel like I can go on for a long time, because it might not be the norm for a team to give a 36-year-old a three-year contract.

"But it gives me comfort. For me, it's not just about me winning, it's about coming to a successful team and being a part of it."