Vincenzo Nibali gained star status in Italy this May thanks to one stage win, three days in the leader's pink jersey and a third overall at the Giro d'Italia. He now wants to help Italy win the World Championships October 3 in Geelong, Australia.
He told La Gazzetta dello Sport, "I would love to be there."
Making the trip to Australia will depend on Italy's new national sports director, Paolo Bettini. Bettini won the title twice – Salzburg 2006 and Stuttgart 2007 – and, following the death of Franco Ballerini earlier this year, took over the post as director.
Bettini inspected the course last month.
It is supposed to suit the sprinters and possibly the attackers. Nibali is a strong attacking rider who won the GP Ouest-France one-day race in 2006, but also has resistance, as he proved at the Giro d'Italia and with his seventh overall at the Tour de France last year.
"I want to have great form for the Vuelta a España [Aug 28 - Sept 19], and then the Worlds will depend on Bettini's decision," added Nibali.
"I have still not had a chance to meet with him, but I will see him at the next races [Coppa Agostoni, Tre Valli Varesine and Melinda]. He knows me well. He will explain to me the course, what he has in mind and then it is up to me to go fast.
"Ballerini went to Melbourne and told me that the course is not as easy as it seems. I think Paolo will have the same ideas.
"I would have been at the Worlds last year in Mendrisio if I had not broken my collarbone at the Eneco Tour. I have always showed that I am available."
Nibali has only ever worn the sky blue Italian national jersey in the time trial – 16th in 2006 and 17th in 2007. He was a reserve for the road team in 2007, that experience and missing this year's Tour de France have given the 25-year-old Sicilian a hunger.
Team Liquigas-Doimo left him out of the Tour de France after it asked him to race the Giro d'Italia in support of Ivan Basso. The Italian team needed a helper deluxe to replace Franco Pellizotti, who the UCI caught doping with its biological passport one week prior to the Giro.
"I am happy with how I raced at the Giro d'Italia; I gained a lot of acknowledgement. I convince many people who in the past did not believe in me. And there were a lot. I am not a flash in the pan, like others. I have grown slowly. I knew I would be only a matter of time and faith."
His golden moment may come in Australia.
This year's World Championships (262.7 kilometres) will be a point-to-point course for the first time. It will start in Melbourne and travel 85 kilometres west to Geelong. In Geelong, the race for the gold medal and rainbow jersey will truly begin: 11 15.9-kilometre circuits, each with the Ridge climb (120m).