ADELAIDE, Australia (VN) – Polite and unpretentious, but clearly possessing a deep intensity within: this pretty much sums up Ryder Hesjedal.

Seventh overall at the 2010 Tour de France, Hesjedal had a change of role at last year’s Tour. First, he helped propel Garmin-Cervélo to the top of the leaderboard in the team time trial in Les Essarts and team-mate Thor Hushovd into the maillot jaune, where the Norwegian remained for another six days.

He would then act as a lieutenant to Tom Danielson, who finally fulfilled the promise everyone knew he had, arriving in Paris ninth overall and already thinking about a top-five in 2012. Hesjedal was also instrumental in helping Garmin-Cervélo secure the teams classification, demonstrating their unity as not so much a team of winners, but a winning team.

With Danielson (and perhaps also Christian Vande Velde) targeting the month of July, Hesjedal has decided to do something a little different this year: become a leader at the Giro, before taking on the Tour in a support role.

He was at first unsure about it but as he tells VeloNews in this in-depth interview, the more he thinks about it, the more he relishes the prospect of ‘la dolce vita in Italia’.