In 2013 Fabian Cancellara dominated the cobbled classics but in 2014 he will face even greater competition. Tom Boonen is expected to find back to his best after an injury-plagued year and Peter Sagan is now one year older and more mature but Cancellara is looking forward to the great rivalry.

For the past decade, the cobbled classics have been dominated by two riders. Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen have taken turns at ruling in the hard one-day races in Northern Europe and it is no coincidence that the duo have a combined total of 7 Paris-Roubaix and 5 Tours of Flanders on their palmares.

In 2012, Cancellara crashed out of Flanders and left it to Boonen to dominate the spring in an unprecedented manner. The Belgian not only won the two cobbled monuments - equalling the record number of wins in both races - he added wins in the E3 Prijs and the Gent-Wevelgem for good measure.

In 2013 it was Boonen who crashed out of Flanders and this time Cancellara was the dominant figure. The Swiss won both monument and triumphed in the E3 to augur what was to come.

In 2014 Cancellara has again set his sights on the classics in a season that will also be focussed on the world championships and may include an world hour record attempt. Boonen is expected to be back after his injury-filled season and the great rivalry is expected to be resumed.

However, the duo will have to take Peter Sagan into account. In the past two seasons, the Slovakian has narrowed the gap to the two giants of the cobbles. This year he was mere metres from cresting the summit of the Paterberg on Cancellara's wheel and if he had done so, he would likely have won his first monument in Flanders.

These days Cancellara is attending the Trek training camp in Benidorm and he is already looking forward of the great battles that will captivate cycling fans in the spring. He is especially looking forward to going up against a revived Boonen.

"I still expect a great Tom," he told Cyclingnews. "I have great respect for him, I've known him a long time and you can't have him missing from those races – it's like food without salt."

While Boonen and Cancellara have had a fine relationship, the Swiss and Sagan have had their controversies. Cancellara publicly criticized Sagan prior to this year's Milan-Sanremo where the duo battled for the win, only to get beaten by Gerald Ciolek who relegated them to the minor places on the podium.

Until now, Sagan has benefited from an underdog status but according to Cancellara, that will now change.

"It's never easy when a young rider wins a lot of races, it's clear that things change, and the thing that changes the most and becomes most difficult is the pressure," he said. "The pressure becomes greater and I've sometimes seen Peter lose races, not because he wasn't strong, but maybe because the pressure weighed on him. Pressure is a very heavy burden to carry."

Cancellara referred to that famous edition of the Milan-Sanremo as an example.

"Everybody thought he would [win] and I don't want to say how many people would have bet on him to do it in that situation," he said. "But I'll say this – he is beatable. That's important. I know where and I know how."

Sagan, Boonen and Cancellara are likely to clash for the first time at Milan-Sanremo in March but could ride against his other already in some of the races in the Middle East in February.