With Joaquim Rodriguez focusing on the Giro and the Vuelta, Alexander Kristoff will get his chance to lead Katusha at the Tour de France. The Norwegian is convinced that he can challenge Peter Sagan in the battle for the green jersey.

After years of waiting, Alexander Kristoff finally got his chance to make his Tour de France debut and he proved that he belongs to the best sprinters in the world when he finished 2nd behind Marcel Kittel on the opening stage in Corsica.

However, Kristoff was primarily doing the race on his own as the Katusha team was totally geared towards the overall classification and Joaquim Rodriguez' dreams of a podium finish. The Norwegian did well in the bunch sprints but against the well-drilled lead-out trains from Argos-Shimano, Lotto Belisol and Omega Pharma-Quick Step, he had little chance.

Yesterday Katusha manager Viachelav Ekimov confirmed that Rodriguez will focus on the Giro and the Vuelta in 2014. At the same time he indicated that the team will have a focus on stage wins in the Tour and that Kristoff will get his chance to go for the green jersey in France.

The Norwegian is happy to get his chance to be a leader in the world's biggest race.

"It is really a vote of confidence when the team says that it will focus on me in the biggest race of the season," he told Procycling.no. "I hope that I can live up to it. This year I was close to a stage win and it will be the main goal next year. But if Katusha build their team around me, I will also go for the green jersey."

In 2013 Kristoff was 5th in the points competition and his tally of 177 points was far from the409 points scored by winner Peter Sagan. However, the Norwegian is convinced that he will be able to challenge the Slovakian in 2014.

"If the team expects me to win the green jersey, the line-up has to be designed with this goal in mind," he said. "If that is the case, I need to have several strong riders around me. I am motivated for the points competition and I think it is possible to win it. This year Sagan was pretty unrivalled so I need to score more points on the tougher stages. But if I am in great condition and a bit stronger than this year, it is realistic for me to fight for the jersey."

Like Sagan, Kristoff is now pure sprinter. Instead, the Norwegian excels in harder races that tires the fastest riders ahead of the sprints. He proved so when he beat Sagan in a tough uphill sprint in the Tour de Suisse and in Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, he finished in the top 10 by winning sprints for the minor placings.

Katusha is not known for its lead-out train but with riders like Alexander Porsev, Alexcey Tsatevich, Marco Haller and Rudiger Selig, the team has several fast riders in its ranks. Kristoff knows that the train is not comparable to the machines found at the major sprint teams but still hopes to be competitive against the major sprinters.

"Maybe we miss an experienced rider to control the lead-out, riders like Bernhard Eisel and Danilo Hondo," he said. "If we had that experience in the team, we would have been up there but we do our job with the team we have."

Kristoff hasn't finalized his race schedule yet but his coach Stein Ørn has told Procycling.no that he expects it to be almost identical to this year's. This means that he will focus on the classics before preparing for the Tour de France in the Tour of Norway and the Tour de Suisse.

He is currently at a Katusha training camp in Girona and will stay there until December 19. He will make his race debut at the Tour of Qatar in early February.