Jean-Christophe Péraud has already decided how he will approach the 2015 Tour de France. Second in 2014, the Frenchman will again make the French race the big goal of his season.

Next year Jean-Christope Peraud will follow a very similar schedule as he prepares for the Tour de France: Tour de San Luis (January 19-25), Tour Mediterraneen (February 12-15), Classic Sud Ardèche (February 28), Drome Classic (March 1), Tirreno-Adriatico (March11-17), Tour of the Basque Country (April 6-11), Giro Trentino (April 21-24) and Criterium du Dauphiné (June 7-14).

The Frenchman created a surprise when he finished second in Paris at 37 years of age, only beaten by Vincenzo Nibali in the highlight of what was a remarkable season. He also finished third in the Tour of the Basque Country and fourth in Tirreno-Adriatico.

Having only been professional on the road since 2010, Peraud knows that it will be hard to repeat last year's great performance on home soil.

"I am aware that the Tour would have been different without Froome and Contador abandoning although Froome was not at his level. In my opinion, only Contador could beat Nibali," he said in an interview with L'Equipe .

The AG2R La Mondiale veteran is aware that expectations will be even bigger next year. 

"I hope that I can demand more from myself. I'll make the best of things. The risk, for example, is to finish fifth in the Tour which could be considered as a failure. We also have Romain (Bardet). We are two leaders and will share the pressure. All teams don't have this advantage. The negative side is that it is hard to avoid harming each other. This is the most difficult to manage," he explained.

He recently renewed his contract with manager Vincent Laveny until 2016.

"Then I'll be 39 years old and it's time to think about something else. I wish I could do the Giro at least once before the end of my career," he told the French sports daily.

CyclingQuotes recently published a lengthy interview with the veteran. You can read it here.