After a tough first year as a pro at Europcar, made more difficult with regular illness and injury, Canadian Antoine Duchesne is looking to make a name for himself at Paris-Nice and the Spring Classics.

“I’m ready for Paris-Nice,” Duchesne told Cyclingnews. “I’m healthy at the moment. Even with a tough early season I feel pretty strong. That’s why I was selected to race Paris-Nice. It will be my first big stage race since I’ve been on this team.”

He had two big crashes, one just before the Arenberg cobbled sector in Paris-Roubaix, which kept him out of action until the Tour de Picardie in June. He then came back for another big goal of his, the Eneco Tour, but crashed out on stage two and was left with acute tendinitis for three months, ending his neo-pro year.

“I had good fitness for all of last year but a lot of bad luck,” Duchesne said. “I hope everything will go better this year.”

He will work as a domestique in Paris-Nice and says his team captains are feeling really good. However, he will take any opportunity he gets to ride in a break or go for himself.

“I think we have strong riders with Romain Sicard and Cyril Gautier, who are doing really well at the moment, and with Bryan Coquard our sprinter... and Thomas Voeckler,” Duchesne said. “I think we have a pretty strong team for Paris-Nice. We're looking forward to trying to do some good stuff over there.”

As Europcar are pulling out of sponsoring the team after this year, the team needs to get big results in the big races in order to stay alive, something that is not lost on the young Canadian.

“For the team, all the french WorldTour races are really important for us,” Duchesne said. “Paris-Nice is the first main objective for us, for sure. We are in our last year, we don’t have a sponsor for next year yet, and so the Tour is going to be where it is really important for our team to get results.”

Duchesne isn’t too bothered that Europcar were downgraded to Pro Continental level this offseason, but it means that he may not get to ride a Grand Tour, unless Europcar get a Vuelta invite to go with their Tour ride. However, he knows he may get to ride the Tour if he keeps performing well.

“The only thing that sucks is that we might only do the Tour de France this year, out of all the Grand Tours,” Duchesne said. “That takes a lot of options away in terms of doing my first Grand Tour. I was hoping to do the Giro but we didn’t get invited and we don’t know yet for the Vuelta. If we only do the Tour it’s going to be hard to get on the team.”

“Of course, I would love to do the Tour, every cyclist wants to do the Tour in his life,” Duchesne said. “I would love it but I think the chances are pretty small. I would be very surprised if I made the team.”