While 25-year old Marcel Kittel, unbothered by Mark Cavendish suffering from every possible kind of misfortunes, has confirmed this week that his performances at the 100th edition of the Tour the France promised something more than being just one-year wonder, his fellow countryman Andre Greipel has just finished his final preparations before participating in the second sprinters-friendly race of the Asian bloc, the Tour of Qatar.

As the former duo will skip a windy affair around Doha, the 31-year old German rider, sporting the fashionably retro outfit of Lotto Belisol, is expected to take all the spoils on flat finishes, returning to the race after nine years of absence.

Even though thirteen stage victories, a total number of wins Greipel claimed last season, couldn’t be considered as a total setback, it was clear enough that Lotto Belisol sprinter was mostly unable to match the speed and power of his biggest rivals under the flamme rouge. Seemingly the German sprinter came to some reasonable conclusions and undergone thorough preparations during last winter-break, as he has already demonstrated an impressive form by winning two stages and finishing runner-up another one at Santos Tour Down Under, where he kicked-off his 2014 season.

Having good reasons to be optimistic so early in the season, Greipel aims to add few more victories from Qatar to his already opened account for 2014. However, the Lotto Belisol rider excludes a possibility of mixing things up in the general classification, as he expects himself to lose precious seconds during a short time trial.

"I won't push myself in any risk here. For sure we're going to try and win a stage but I don't think we're aiming for GC or something like that. At least, I'm not," Greipel told Cyclingnews.

Although many riders preferably follow similar programs for many consecutive years, it is not a case for the Gorilla. The older of German sprinters admits to enjoy having different events on the agenda and trying different combinations, thus he is happy for his return to Qatar after almost a decade long absence, as well as he doesn’t mind skipping the Milan-San Remo after the Pompeiana climb was inserted, making its route less sprinters-friendly than ever.

"Two years ago, I should have been here alright, but I was sick," he explained.

"So I skipped Qatar and just did Oman. But I'm here this year, and it's just a case of trying something different."

"In the end, it's not bad to miss out on San Remo because it means I can do Dwars door Vlaanderen in Belgium [the following Wednesday - ed], which is an important race for the team and could also suit me," Greipel said.

As a strong show off in the spring Classics always has to be considered as the one of priorities for any Belgian team, Greipel is eager to help out his team-mates in getting safely through the cobbles. Even though he claims not to have any personal ambitions regarding those races, his unexpectedly strong performances last year might be treated as the greatest highlight of 2013 season for the German.

"I'm part of the team there and while these are not the races for me, I'm always trying to help the team," said Greipel, who admitted that the April races do not carry quite the same level of personal pressure as the high-octane sprints of the Tour de France. "Of course, you can kind of enjoy yourself in these races with all the crowds, but the cobbled classics are always hard - it's hard work."

"I think to try to get a result, you need to try something out. In Flanders last year we did that, and Roelandts finished third, behind Cancellara and Sagan. That was nearly a victory, I would say," Greipel said. "I think there's always a margin to do better and improve in those races, and of course we're going to try and do something like that again. We can't wait for Cancellara and Sagan - we have to do our own race."

Greipel is expected to ride the Tour of Qatar, Tour of Oman, Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and Tirreno-Adriatico in the build-up the classics.