Fabian Cancellara will start his season with a race that suits him perfectly when he rolls down the start ramp for the opening 9.9km time trial of the Dubai Tour. Having been plagued by illness and a training cash, however, he only plans to ease into racing and has no ambitions for the overall win.

A flat 9.9km time trial two completely flat stages and one that has some minor climbs at the end. On paper, the inaugural Dubai Tour appears to be perfectly suited to Fabian Cancellara who will start his career as a Trek rider when the Middle East race starts tomorrow.

However, it would be a bad idea to have to many expectations for the Swiss classics and time trial specialist. Having been plagued by illness around Christmas and later brushing with a car while training in his native Switzerland has left him short of the kind of form that is needed to compete against riders like Tony Martin, Taylor Phinney and Adriano Malori in the time trial that is set to determine the GC.

"No. I'll be honest, It's a 10km time trial on normal (road) bikes," he told Cyclingnews at the pre-race press conference. "I have no ambitions at all, I'm just here for racing, getting into participating in the first race of the year with Trek Factory Racing, a new team. This is more what counts now."

Cancellara is usually starting his seasons rather slowly but will have plenty of time to reach his best condition for the classics. He will do the full block of racing in the Middle East as he will also be riding the Tours of Qatar and Oman as he has also done in the past.

"I've got Qatar and Oman, I've got a lot of kilometres and a lot of days when I'll race," he said. "That's why I'll go in with low pressure. That's normal and it’s good like that.

"There's Tony, there's Phinney, there are many others," he added when asked about the favourites. "But that's not my problem. I'm just looking to get ready and get in a racing mood."

Despite not targeting the overall, he refused the suggestion that he was not taking the race seriously.

"This is definitely a race," he said. "It's the first race (of the season), it's Dubai, it's a prestigious race, it's not Rond de Kerktorem (the circuit of the church tower). It's a big thing. But for me it’s the first race. A few guys have raced at the Tour Down Under and San Luis. I'll see how it goes." 

Cancellara will again target the cobbled classics as he plans to repeat his double in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.