After an injury-plagued season that gave him very few opportunities to race, Alessandro Ballan has recovered from his health issues and has set his sights on a big 2014 season. With the Tour of Flanders already on his palmares, the BMC rider hopes to win the Paris-Roubaix in the future.

After a couple of different seasons, Alessandro Ballan proved that he was back to his best when he finished 3rd in both the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix and won the queen stage of the Eneco Tour in 2012. All was set for a big 2013 that could possibly give him the opportunity to take another big classics win after his great triumph in the 2007 Tour of Flanders.

However, all his hopes were dashed already before the season had even begun. While training with his teammates in December on Mallorca, he crashed hard and was left with a broken femur and a fractured rib while he also needed surgery to have his spleen removed.

A long recovery followed for Ballan who made his return to competition at the Swiss one-day race GP Kanton Aargau-Gippingen in June. With only 16 days of racing in his legs, Ballan faced more surgery in August, putting a premature end to a totally forgettable season for the Italian.

Finally, Ballan has recovered from his health issues and has now set his sights on a return to full form in 2014. As always, the cobbled classics will be the main target, with the BMC rider hoping to continue the upwards trajectory he showed in 2012.

On that occasion, he was up against an unbeatable Tom Boonen while the 2013 king of the cobbles, Fabian Cancellara, was absent due to injury. Ballan is convinced that the Swiss' presence will only enhance his chances of success.

"When I raced against Boonen, he was simply too strong, unbeatable," he said in an interview with dcl magazine. "That year, Filippo Pozzato and I tried to beat him but he was too strong and there was little we could do. If Fabian had been there, with his way of racing, it would be favourable to my characteristics. Everthing would have been different in a better way."

Ballan hasn't won an awful lot of races but his wins have mostly been of the highest quality. In addition to his 2007 Flanders win, he was first across the line in the 2008 World Championships in the Italian city of Varese and also has a Vuelta stage, an overall win in the Tour de Pologne and the Vattenfall Cyclassics on his palmares.

His only regret is that he has failed to win more often in his home country.

"I won few races but the ones I've taken, were very important," he said. " I hope to continue like this and get more results. My only regret is that I have won too little in Italy. Yes, I won the world championships in my home country which was wonderful, but I would like win a stage in the Giro d'Italia too."

Despite this desire to shine in the grand tours, there is no doubt that his focus is first and foremost on the classics. Asked about his main target, the Italian has no doubt.

"I would love to win in Roubaix," he said.