Despite suffering a lot of bad luck, Arnaud Demare has confirmed his potential as a future classics specialist, finishing Belgian season's opening Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 10th place. The promising performance combined with his no less impressive showing at the Paris-Roubaix last year encouraged the last French winner of the cobbled monument – Frederic Guesdon – to suggest that the young FDJ rider is already capable of conquering the Hell of the North.

Guesdon, currently working as sports director at FDJ, disagreed that as tough races as Paris-Roubaix are fields of a battle for more experienced riders and insisted that 12th place taken last year confirms that Demare is already capable of winning the most prestigeous of cobbled classics.

"It's possible this year, Arnaud already did a very nice Paris-Roubaix last year, so anything is possible," Guesdon told Cyclingnews in Kuurne on Sunday. "Physically he's certainly capable, so I don't see why he can't do it in 2015. We're certainly going to approach the race aiming to win it with him.

"It's hard to plan for an ideal scenario at Roubaix, but he has an advantage in that he has a real turn of speed so he's not obliged to try and attack alone, he can win it in a sprint. That's certainly not a bad option to have."

An ill-timed puncture prevented Demare from fighting for a victory in Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but the FDJ sports director regards the way he thought back as a very promising sign for Paris-Nice and upcoming classics. He also pointed out that skipping Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, considered an affair far more suitable for sprinters, had nothing to do with fatigue. Guesdon explained that is was a part of the initial race programme, designed with the Hell of the North in mind as the biggest objective for spring.

"We had some bad luck with five punctures and that ruined our race a little bit but the lads were still up there and despite everything, Arnaud still fought through and took 10th place," Guesdon said. "We're not exactly satisfied with that but we can't be too disappointed either."

"He's just done Qatar and Oman, he's got Paris-Nice next week and all the Classics after that, so he needed to take a breather. It was going to be difficult to do both races this weekend at a good level."

"Apart from Kuurne, his early-season programme is pretty similar this year, but he does want to reach top form a little bit later, in the month of April, and we're not there yet.”

Demare is still yet to clock his first victory of the season, and even though they remain focused on their biggest objective, Guedson agreed that this kind of confidence boost would considerably improve their chances on succeeding in April.

„Obviously, the aim is to win on D-Day, but so much the better if you can grab a win or two along the way too,” he concluded.