This week Andy Schleck (Trek) is making his 2014 in the Tour of Oman and the 2010 Tour de France champion is optimistic that he is ready to put his many struggles behind. With a good winter in his legs, he hopes to finish in the top 10 in the mountainous stage race.

Andy Schleck has always got his seasons off to a slow beginning and the Luxembourger has rarely featured near the top of the leaderboards until the Ardennes classics in April. However, he expects things to be different this time around as nice weather in his native Luxembourg has allowed him to do some solid off-season training.

Schleck has had a few difficult season after crashing hard and breaking his pelvis in the 2012 Criterium du Dauphiné, and for a long time he struggled just to finish races. He showed signs that he may find back to his best level when he finished 20th in the Tour de France but it is still a far cry from his heydays when he wasa perennial top 2 finisher in the world's biggest race.

Schleck has been reunited with his brother Frank who is back from a one-year suspension and these days the duo are riding together for the first time since the 2012 Liege-Bastogne-Liege in the Tour of Oman, Andy's first race of the season. That has been an added motivation for Schleck who is targeting a top result in the Middle East race.

"The weather was pretty good in Luxembourg and so I was able to do more and better training than before," he told Cyclingnews. "We also did some training camps in Spain in December and then in Mallorca in January. We went back to Mallorca for a week before coming here too. We've been training good and I hope we can see the benefits of the work we've done."

Schleck faces some fierce competition in Oman that has attracted a star-studded line-up with riders like Chris Froome, Joaquim Rodriguez, Vincenzo Nibali, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Tejay Van Garderen, Robert Gesink, Sergio Henao, Rigoberto Uran and Domenico Pozzovivo all on the start line. However, Schleck refuses to pay too much attention to the early results.

"I think it's too early to say now who is going to have a good season and who not. This race is about finding the racing rhythm," he said.

"There are some hard mountain stages coming up but I think the usual guys will be in front: Froome and Purito. We'll find out if I can go with them or not... I'm not specifically looking for a result that looks good on paper but I'd hope that on the climbs I can stay with the 10 best in front."

Schleck finished safely in the bunch on the first stage and he was always well-protected by his teammates - even when the peloton briefly split up in the crosswinds.

“It was a nice start to the season," he said“A bit of crosswind but Fabian [Cancellara] was there and took Fränk and myself up to the front. I think this was really important today because it showed good teamwork; it's easy to lose time with the wind and we showed today we are prepared.

“Everyone knew the crosswinds were coming and 10kms before, there was fighting in the peloton for position. Some guys like [Joaquim] Rodriguez and [Chris] Froome were dropped at this moment, which is a good sign for us because it’s a little bit a kick in the morale for these guys, and since we were all in the front, it’s a boost in morale for us [actually, Froome didn't miss the front group, ed.].”

The Tour of Oman continues today with another stage for the sprinters.

You can read our preview of the race here.