After finishing 5th overall last year and following that achievement up by being the best young rider at the 2012 Tour de France, BMC’s American Teejay van Garderen must carry the mantle of being the favourite for this year’s Paris-Nice although he himself declines such a role.

“I don’t see it that way, that I’m the main favourite,” van Garderen told Cyclingnews.com “There are five or six guys off the top of my head who are favourites for this race: I think we’re all on the same level and I wouldn’t put one over the other.”

Van Garderen cites fellow countryman Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM), Richie Porte (Sky) and Robert Gesink (Blanco) as his main rivals for overall victory, although he is quick to point out that the list of contenders could take on a very different outlook after the opening road stage.

“Every day was a selection last year; we had echelons on the first day,” van Garderen recalled. “Twenty guys went away and if you weren’t in that group, you were out of the race already. This year we’ve got the Montagne de Lure as well and the Col d’Éze time trial again, but there are some pretty hard, hilly stages in between all of that too. There isn’t a single stage where you can sit back and relax.”

As might be expected van Garderen pinpoints the Col d’Èze as the do-or-die climb in the Paris-Nice. “Obviously the Col d’Éze might be my best opportunity to win the race but if there’s an opportunity on the Montagne de Lure, then you have to take it. I’m going to take the race as it comes.”

Paris-Nice is van Garderen’s second race of the season after beginning his crusade at the Tour de San Luis in January where, much to his own surprise, he finished second overall.

Since San Luis van Garderen has spent much of the month training in California and he described the reasoning behind taking a fairly long break between his first and second competitive excursions. “After Paris-Nice last year, I was already pretty tired when I went on to the Volta a Catalunya, so we changed it up this year just to spread out the racing a little bit more,” he said. “Hopefully it can make me good at the races themselves and still fresh enough to keep that level for more races.”