Sylvain Chavanel belongs to a group of cyclists who, for various reasons, have decided to take a step down and sign a contract with the second division teams for the upcoming season. The Frenchman, who from 2014 will sport the outfit of the IAM cycling, does not conceal that his ambitions to lead the team in major races had the main impact on the decision, what couldn’t be guaranteed while staying in the ranks of the Belgian World Tour Team.

During his years in Omega, Chavanel played an important part of Tom Boonen’s successes in classic races, he also managed to achieve some of the significant results of his own, though: he finished a runner-up in the 2011 Ronde van Vlaanderen and fourth in this year’s Milano-Sanremo.

Already during recent seasons Chavanel was forced to play the supporting role to Omega Pharma – Quick Step leaders, and clearly visible strengthening the roster of the Belgian team, both in the context of the spring classics season, as well as competing for the general classification of the Grand Tours, was no indication that the situation could turn around.

Therefore, it seems that the coming season will be the most important of Frenchman’s career, since he made a switch to Omega Pharma - Quick Step in 2009. Chavanel admits that over the years the cycle of preparations for subsequent seasons had to undergo explicit modifications.

“The older I get, the more my body becomes a diesel engine,” he told France’s La Nouvelle Republique.

“It takes time to ramp up.”

“Previously, I’d completely stopped for five to six weeks,” Chavanel said. “With age I find that I have to keep the pace. I do micro-breaks, maybe doing some other form of exercise like playing tennis or running.”

Although both Chavanel and IAM Cyclings’ main objectives are centered around the spring classics, team owner Michel Thétaz does not conceal that obtaining good results during this period should realistically increase the chances of the team in contention for a wild card at the Tour de France. He also points out that the ambitions of the French rider related to playing a leading role fully go hand in hand with their expectations towards him..

“We had several big riders, including Chavanel, that wanted to join our team. We turned a few down but welcomed Chavanel,” Thétaz said. “In our team, he will be the clear leader.”

“Chavanel and those guys know that with a smaller team they will be taken care of,” Thétaz said. “It’s not like we have the big budget, but what we do have is the family atmosphere that comes along with a second division team.”

“I feel confident we’ll be invited,” Thétaz said about the chances of getting one among four possible Tour de France wildcard invitations.