Italian Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) will spend a couple weeks in Colorado before trying to win the Giro d’Italia this May. Aru announced this week that he’ll return to the Giro d’Italia, where he placed second to Alberto Contador in 2015. He will begin his season in Mallorca on January 31, race in Algarve, Portugal, and Catalunya, Spain — and will then travel to the U.S.

“We are followed by coaches from the University of Colorado in Boulder, our head coach Iñigo San Millan has lived there for years,” Aru told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “And, coincidentally, I had my first race in the pros as a stagiaire: it was the Tour of Colorado in 2012, I arrived second in a stage” behind Rory Sutherland.