In recent years, Tom Dumoulin has started his season invariably in the Ruta del Sol, but this year he has chosen to make his debut in the Tour Down Under.

“Until now, my spring has never really been good and now it needs to change,” the Dutchman telss NUSport.nl.

Today the Australian race started with a short criterium in Adelaide after which the real stage race kicks off on Tuesday.

“I wanted to do it differently because for a few years I have tried to be good in the spring and I have not really succeeded.”

The 24-year-old is targeting success already at the Tour Down Under. “It’s a very nice course with lots of explosive finals. If I'm in good shape, it's something for me.

"The only question is whether that’s the case. I am not entirely convinced about that. The training goes well but that was also the case last year and then everything went wrong in the races.

“In any case, the Tour Down Under is not a training race for me. I am here with the plan to be part of the action and achieve a good result.”

Dumoulin had an excellent 2014 that included a bronze medal in the Worlds time trial. Last week that earned him an extension of his contract with Giant-Alpecin. His new contract now runs  until the end of 2016.

“Other teams were interested but I had no talks with another team. I saw no need to go anywhere else. The team is still growing and I am too. I feel that together we can reach a higher level. "

In addition to the opening race, Dumoulin has already planned the rest of his early season. After the Tour Down Under, he will do Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, the Tour of the Basque Country, the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. A few races less than last year and with a focus on the classics.

However, the biggest change is in his preparation for the Tour de France. "I will go to the first altitude training camp, most likely in the Sierra Nevada. In other years, the focus was on the races around the Tour, now the Tour is the main goal.

“For example, the Eneco Tour was more important for me because I could really win that race and then I rode the Tour as a learning opportunity. I helped the team and tried to so some funny things. Now it all comes down to that one race, and that is very exciting.”

His greatest chance of success is the prologue in Utrecht on July 4. Dumoulin will already have his eyes on those 13.7km in the spring.  "The classics are the main goals, but I will always have a focus on my time trialling.”