AG2R-La Mondiale's Damien Gaudin is among the riders who relish Paris-Roubaix and the Frenchman, 5th in 2013, is convinced he could become the first local rider to win the race since Frederic Guesdon in1997.

“It would be good to see that change tomorrow. And honestly I would love it to be me. I showed in Flanders what a good shape I'm in and I'm starting this Paris-Roubaix to win it”, said Gaudin, who staged a long breakaway last week in the Ronde.

“Kristoff is probably the number one favourite but it's Paris-Roubaix it's a different ball game. A lot can happen, you need to make the right moves at the right times. I'm extremely motivated and confident,” he told Letour.fr.

AG2R-La Montagne manager Vincent Lavenu admitted before the start that his team were not yet classics specialists: “On paper, we have the right line-up with a rider who won in Roubaix (Van Summeren), a rider who came second (Turgot) and another one who finished 5th (Gaudin)," he told Letour.fr. "Still we never managed to deliver so far. We reinforced our group for the classics in the past couple of years but we have not yet found the key to win theses races. In the same time, we don't want to put any pressure on ourselves as our team is still focused on the climbers.”