As a surprising champion of the winter-struck 2013 edition of Milano-Sanremo, Gerald Ciolek of MTN-Qhubeka will return to the sprinters’ favourite monument with the No. 1 bib on his shoulders. However, the German rider remains realistic about his chances to score a back-to-back double upsetting favorites one more time while returning to La Primavera, hoping for a solid top ten result instead.

Last year’s victory in Milano-Sanremo is without any doubt the biggest success in the professional career of the 27-year old German, however, questioned during his last build-up event towards season’s first monument Ciolek seemed rather reluctant to share more thorough emotions connected with that special moment.

“It’s a beautiful trophy with a woman on it,” Ciolek told VeloNews. “It looks nice at home in Cologne.”

Riding in the African Pro Continental outfit MTN-Qhubeka, the former Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider certainly hasn’t been mentioned among the favorites in the likes of Sagan (Cannondale) or Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in last year’s edition, and his team hoped for the solid performance from their sprinter concluded with a top ten result.

“Yeah, well, we didn’t really think about winning Milano-Sanremo last year, but we tried to get a good result and the best out of the race. We went for a top 10 or a top five,” Ciolek said. “It’s Milano-Sanremo; if you do a top 10 or even a top five, then it’s a really good result. That doesn’t change from last year to this year. The race doesn’t get any easier because we won it once.”

Despite wearing dossard No. 1 on his back, once again Cavendish, Sagan or Cancellara, not Ciolek, are considered biggest favorites to win the 2014 edition of La Primavera, what lets the 27-year old German to fly under the radars. However, MTN-Qhubeka sprinter consciously assesses his own chances to repeat a surprising success and claims that also this time there is no big pressure for the victory as their goals haven’t changed.

As expected, just like other sprinters lining up at the start of Milano-Sanremo on Sunday, Ciolek is pleased with this year’s parcours marking event’s return to its roots.

“I didn’t really like the La Mànie climb, but I can’t say much about Pompeiana because I never rode this climb. I know this edition and I’ve always liked it,” Ciolek said. “Even with No. 1 on my back, the goals are still the same as last year: to score a good result. Sure we’ll be watched more this time, but I don’t think there’s more pressure on the team.”

Even though the MTN-Qhubeka new signing Linus Gerdemann won’t be able to participate in this year’s even due to a bug caught in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Ciolek is certain he will receive a proper support from his other team-mates, especially Jay Thomson and Ignatas Konovalovas.

“It’s a bit of a pity about Linus, but I definitely have good support for my Sanremo return,” German sprinter concluded.