Having made the jump from Garmin-Sharp into the relative unknown of team MTN-Qjubeka, going from the WorldTour to Pro Continental level. And the 30-year-old American couldn’t be happier.

“It’s going well, I’m excited for the year, a new team and new environment, so far so good. Looking at wattage and all that, the numbers are all good, I’ve been healthy, I can’t really complain about anything,” he told Cyclingnews.

He gets down to his big objective for 2015, the Cobbled Classics, in just a week’s time, although he doesn’t expect to be at his best for Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, preferring to be good at Dwars door Vlaabderen and Paris-Roubaix.

“It’s unrealistic to be 100 percent at that point and then right the way through to five weeks later at Paris-Roubaix. The goal is to be on the way up, but maybe not quite at the top there,” he said.

“I’ve come really close in Waregem (Dwars door Vlaanderen – he was second last year and third in 2011) and Ghent-Wevelgem (third in 2011). Then there’s Scheldeprijs which I’ve won (in 2010) and been twice second. But I love them all and we have such a strong team, we have a lot of cards to play. The goal is to come into those three weeks of racing as fit as possible.”

In order to pursue his goal of finally winning Dwars door Vlaanbdern, he is skipping Milan-Sanremo, which he says he can afford to do as the team has two former winners to race for anyway.

“That's because I have a bit of a soft spot for Waregem and that’s only three days later and we certainly have plenty of guys who have proven themselves at San Remo. We have two former winners [Ciolek and Goss] and I may take a pass on that and come into Dwars Door Vlaanderen. It depends how everyone’s health is doing, it’s the spring, guys get sick so you just have to wait and see.”