In 2007, Greg van Avermaet first did the Tour of Qatar. He was a young man there and only wanted to survive, but got way more than he bargained for when he sprinted to victory on the penultimate stage. Now though, everything has changed.

"It's different alright, because now I know I'll be fine and I will survive here," Van Avermaet laughed. "It's more like a preparation for the classics. It's good to come here from training camp because it's always hard racing, there's a lot of wind, and you get a lot of speed in the legs."

"Some other riders maybe prefer other races in February, and I've tried a lot of other things - Down Under, Algarve, Bessèges - but I think for me this one fits the best."

Now in his forth season with BMC, he is no longer Phillippe Gilbert’s reluctant understudy, but a fully blown Classics contender in his own right, something that has been acknowledged by his team, particularly in the Cobbled Classics, where he has given countless high pacing’s in the absence of Thor Hushovd, Gilbert and Taylor Phinney (the latter due to a lack of experience and course knowledge rather than poor form). Once again, Van Avermaet will lead the team in the Tour of Flanders as a result of Hushovd’s search for form continuing and Gilbert opting to skip the race and Alessandro Ballan’s suspension.

"It gives me pressure, but it's good to have that pressure," he said. "I like to be leader there because I've proved already that I can be good there. It gives me motivation that one of the biggest teams in the world gave me this role. I hope to finish it off one time because I've been in the top ten in the classics a lot, but I know I've got it in me to be a winner also."

As earlier mentioned, he has been incredibly consistent in the Classics- he's been 4th at Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, 3rd at Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem, 7th at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 9th at Milan-San Remo - but he has yet to land a signature victory. His only one-day victory came at Paris-Tours.

"I'm always chasing this big classic," he admitted. "I feel I've got it in me but some guys like Cancellara, Boonen and Sagan are a little bit stronger. But I'm still only 28, so I have a few more years to go. I'm getting a little bit stronger every year and I hope it comes. For me this is the big goal: to win one classic would be wonderful for my career."

Van Avermaet knows that in order to win a big Classic, he will most likely find his victory on the cobbles. As a consequence, he will not do Liege this year.

"Last year, I was planning not to do Roubaix, but after Flanders, I had the feeling that I was on my best form of the year and I thought it would be a bit stupid to stop and then try to build up again for Amstel and Liège," Van Avermaet said. A fine fourth place in what was his first Paris-Roubaix appearance in three years proved his instincts were correct. "It gives me a different programme now, and I'm not doing Liège anymore."

The addition of the Pompeiana climb to the finale of Milan-Sanremo has also caught the Belgian’s attention:

"It's better for me because you can drop more sprinters on it, and I'm still a pretty fast guy on the end," he said - but even La Classicissima is viewed primarily through the optic of preparing for the Tour of Flanders: "I always want to be good for Milan-San Remo because if I'm good there, I'll be good for the whole classics period, I think."

He will recon the Sanremo route after Paris-Nice. As For Flanders, this will not be necessary. “I know every stone.”

Will 2014 be his year?