Elia Viviani, hoping to turn his season around at the Giro d'Italia and overcome a disappointing showing at the Tour de France, compared the winless 2020 season to that of a soccer center forward or a goal-scorer after moving from Detunink-Quickstep to Cofidis He compares it to a striker without a goal scorer.

"The two situations are similar. But if I start scoring or winning, I might not stop," Viviani told La Gazzetta dello Sport as he awaits the start of the Giro d'Italia in Palermo, Sicily.

After three seasons with Team Sky, Viviani enjoyed great success with Dečuninck-Quick Step in 2018 and 2019: four stages at the 2018 Giro d'Italia, a stage win at the 2019 Tour de France, and Prudential RideLondon-Sully Classic, his second Hamburg EuroEyes Cyclassics, and representing Italy in the European road race title.

However, Viviani has not won a sprint since switching from the blue of the Dečuninck-Quickstep to the red of the Cofidis. He has repeated his prize-winning performances, but his best result in three Tour de France sprint victories was fourth place on stage 10.

After suffering and losing his smile in the Tour de France, Viviani hopes to find the allure of sprinting on Italy's home roads in his seventh Giro d'Italia.

"It's hard to smile when things don't go your way in the Tour," he said. I'm not going to make excuses."

Only a handful of riders have competed in both the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, completing 42 days of racing in just eight weeks. Peter Sagan, for example, negotiated with the race organizers and accepted to miss the Classics.

"If I had felt tired after the Tour, I wouldn't be here," he said. I'm always going back and forth between road and track." Perhaps the lockdown has taken its toll on me compared to last year.

"I see the Giro as an opportunity to fight back and get my season back on track. That's what I did last season.

"I want to prove to myself and one or two others that I can win again. I had two great seasons, so things won't change in just a few months. But I need results to prove it."

Viviani expects to rival the Tour de France, but his rivals are different. While Tour de France green jersey winner Sam Bennett and stage winners Caleb Yuan, Alexander Kristoff, and Wout Van Aert are not in Italy, other big-name sprinters are.

"The names are different, but the sprint level is the same as in the Tour," he insists. In order of rivalry and talent, it's Gaviria, De Mare, Sagan, and Matthews."

Viviani does not want to use his switch of teams as an excuse for his own slump. He undoubtedly benefited greatly from the work of Detunink Quickstep and the excellent leadout of Mikhail Morkov. Currently, he lacks the speed to lead out and finish.

"There are two aspects to it. One is mental; sprinters, like strikers, always want to win. The other is technical. When one loses the winning instinct to step on the right wheel at the right moment, he loses the feeling of sprinting perfectly and suffers even more.

Viviani left Dečuninck-Quick-Step to earn more money at Cofidis, and the Belgian replaced him with Sam Bennett, who won two stages and the green jersey at the Tour de France.

Cofidis' lead-out train is still under construction. With his loyal teammate and friend Fabio Sabatini out of the Giro d'Italia for COVID-19 and others out due to illness, Viviani will have to rely on fellow Italian Simone Casonni and Australian Nathan Haas.

"I don't want to make excuses," he said. I have no regrets." I thought it would work out better, but it didn't. But we'll do everything we can to change things around and win

"The idea was to build a lead-out train for me, but for various reasons it hasn't happened yet. I have explained to the team that I can't just jump into a sprint and win.

"Unfortunately we lost Sabatini in COVID-19 and now we lost Ken Van Bilsen. He came to Italy and came down with the flu. He tested negative for COVID-19 but returned home.

In effect, two of the guys from the full train for me, Konsonny and Haas, have decided to drop me. I hope I can still put the ball in the back of the net."