Greg van Avermaet is infamously known as a highly talented classics specialist lacking an ability to finish things off and thus despite, despite his splendid disposition, is considered rather an outsider to take the spoils in major cobbled events – including the coming Paris Roubaix. His unfortunate reputation has been once again proved this season, as the BMC captain was twice outfoxed by slower, at least on paper, Ian Stannard (Team Sky) and Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) to finish runner up in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Ronde van Vlaanderen respectively.

 

Such circumstances certainly couldn’t provide Van Avermaet with huge confidence boost ahead of the ultimate cobbled event of the season, but after emerging as the arguably most impressive rider in Ronde van Vlaanderen, the BMC captain still believes in his fast finish and chanced to take the spoils in the Paris-Roubaix.

 

“I’m still confident in my sprint. I think I have a good sprint in the end of a hard race. I think this is one of my strongest points and always has been,” Van Avermaet told reporters in Kortrijk on Thursday. “Getting beaten by Fabian after a hard race like Sunday was a disappointment but also not a surprise. He’s pretty strong in the sprint.”

 

Even without a victory in the major cobbled events – his 2011 Paris-Tours win remains his only title obtained in classic races, Van Avermaet certainly made a good use of the opportunity to lead the BMC with his impressive consistency throughout whole spring season while Philippe Gilbert decided to focus solely on Ardennes this year.

 

The 28-year old Belgian admitted he has undergone some special training on the renowned velodrome in Ghent during the winter-break to improve his sprint ahead of the cobbled classics, and hopes it will finally bear fruit in the coming Hell of the North.

 

“It’s a strange sprint in Roubaix but I trained a little bit in winter on the track in Ghent,” he said. “Although it’s a different feeling with 5 bar in the wheel on Sunday rather than 9 bar. We’ll see on Sunday how it’s happening, but I have confidence also in a sprint on the track. A sprint on the track is always a little bit different: you can go a bit higher on the banking to get some extra speed.”

 

Rather unsurprisingly, Van Avermaet acknowledges that since one week couldn’t make a huge difference  in riders’ disposition, the very same riders as in the Ronde van Vlaanderen should emerge as the strongest in the Paris-Roubaix finale.

 

“He would always the biggest favourite for Roubaix even if he hadn’t won Flanders” – and he expects the same roll call of contenders who were present in the finale of De Ronde. “You can’t make such a big difference in the condition in one week, so it’s just the same names who’ll be there in the final,” he said.

 

In the same line, the 28-year old classics specialist believes that even though two cobbled monuments are, in fact, entirely different in terms of power distribution and tactics, the BMC will approach the race with similar plan to the one which proved so successful in de Ronde.

 

“I like the way we raced on Sunday and I think it’s the way we have to race this week,” Van Avermaet said. “It takes pressure off of me and the guys who are in the break are also in a good position either to work for me or go by themselves. I think this is the kind of racing we have to do because we have a really strong team with really good names on paper. If you put Quinziato or Phinney out there, then you can play on them because they are strong guys and we also believe in them if they go in a break.”

 

The American squad would certainly love to anticipate moves of the favorites exactly as they did last Sunday, however, the former Paris-Tours winner admits that the Hell of the North is a much harder race to control and in the end simply only the strongest riders are prevailing.

 

“It’s going to be a crazy race, and first of all it’s about surviving and getting in the final,” Van Avermaet said. “If you’re there and you don’t have crashes or you don’t have flat tyres, then I think it’s a race where the strongest guys are in the front. There aren’t much tactics going on. It’s about having the legs and being on the front.”

 

A promising fourth place taken in the Paris-Roubaix last year encouraged the 28-year old Belgian to target cobbled classics exclusively this season, but BMC leader confesses that French stretches of pave are still not nearly half as familiar for him as hilly Flemish routes.

 

“I know the parcours of Flanders really well, every corner, every stone, but I don’t know Roubaix like that yet,” he said.

 

“That’s why I want to see it tomorrow again and then maybe I can decide where I want to go. Maybe I’ll even just wait until Sunday and see how it goes. It’s hard to say now and it’s good to see everything again first, I think.”