Relaxing in the shade alongside a mud splattered Kristin Danielson (Velo Bella) after the pro-women’s cross country event at the NORBA National in Banner Elk, North Carolina, was hubby Tom back from Europe and looking far better than he had on the days leading up to his withdrawal from this year’s Giro d’Italia.

“I feel totally recovered now from being really sick,” said the Discovery man. “I’ve been on my bike for about a week now, and the first half was really bad. I was really struggling. When you get really sick it’s like you’re a different person and coming back to health is hard for me. But now I feel back to normal and I’m here with my wife and I’ve been riding here and feeling good.”

Last month, the Discovery Channel team announced that Danielson will be the squad’s GC man for this year’s Vuelta a España.

“I’ve been thinking about the Vuelta for a long time,” he said. “I feel somewhat confident going into it because I’ve done two grand tours and I’ve improved a lot since the first one. Even during the second one, before I was sick I was fifth overall while working for (Paolo) Savoldelli. And I think realistically it’s time to try for an overall whether it’s fifth or seventh again or for the podium. It’s an exciting course for me because it has three time trials, two of which are long. So I hope to keep up with the leaders in the mountains but I want to do better than them in the time trials.”

Danielson has both the Tour of Austria, and the Tour of Germany ahead of him before he sees Spain. Danielson says he’s not interested in contesting those events, but will instead be using them for preparation for the Vuelta. The former college racer from Durango said that no matter what he won’t be feeling too much pressure when he takes on the Spanish national tour.

“I’m not really concerned about meeting anyone’s expectations but my own,” he noted. “I know that racing grand tours is a lot harder than anything else, and I realized that when I got into it. So for me, just to see improvement in the race while targeting a high finish is what I hope to do.”