Due to the top European riders not attending Rotorua last year he knows that the standard will be higher in Italy, as will the temperatures he will compete in.
"I am not going across the other side of the world to come second. It is all in to win but it is going to be tough because I haven't raced any European guys before. That should be interesting," Haycock said.
"I am just trying to work hard now and build up a base and build the volume up before we get into some hills in the next few months before we go. It will be the middle of summer in June over there so it is going to be close to 40 degrees as they are right on the coast of the Mediterranean.
"It is a steeper course over there, essentially twice as steep as the course in Rotorua. Last year I rode 360km with 8200m of climbing. Mount Everest is 8800m so I wasn't far off. This year I am looking at about 8000m and closer to 10,000m climbing.
"We have had the odd hot day but nothing like we are going to get over there in the race. We go over 10 days before to acclimatise. There are a few of us going over from Bay of Plenty to compete which is good."
The key for Haycock is to taper his performance to peak by the time he and his coach and mechanic arrive in Italy.
He competed in Rotorua last weekend in what was supposed to be an eight-hour challenge but it was shortened to five hours because of poor weather.
"The field has already spread out by then so I just put the hammer down. I dropped all the solo riders straight away and was racing the teams. There were probably nearly 30 solos out there and I didn't look back really and ended up doing 11 laps which was close to 90ks.
"I won the solo by two laps and got second overall against the teams of two or three."
