Philippe Gilbert has always used local knowledge to his advantage when it comes to riding the Ardennes Classics. Now that he lives in Monaco, he is regularly finding himself riding over the border and onto the finale of the Milam-Sanremo and he hopes to use this to help him win on Sunday.

Gilbert trained hard all winter for the race only to find that the new route that suits him so well will not start till 2015 and the race has reverted back to an even more sprinter friendly route than last year. However, Gilbert is not playing down his chances despite the change and is quite open in admitting he still believes he can win the race this year.

"I've never won this race but I've always been there in the final," Gilbert told reporters in Vimercate on Friday afternoon. "Although in 2007, the finish was still on the Via Roma and that's also a big difference because now it's a long way from the bottom of the Poggio to the finish. That changes a lot and maybe it's the hardest thing in the race right now."

"I have no problem if it's raining but I know the Riviera and it's very slippery if it's raining and that's dangerous," Gilbert said. "The wind is also very important. This makes the race. Would I prefer a tailwind? Well, it depends because then you have a headwind on the Poggio as you come back. So I would prefer a tailwind on the climbs because then you can go faster on the climbs."

Gilbert states that t is the riders that make the race and not the parcours and that once the race hits the Turchino Pass, it will really light up from there.

"If we go crazy from the start and there's wind and rain, then it will be a hard edition, but if five guys go away early and take 18 minutes then it's different," he said. "After that, you can feel on the Capo Berta if you have the legs to win or not. Although in other races when you feel good with 40k to go, you know you'll be in the top five or the top ten but here it's never sure.”

Strong Squad

Gilbert is part of a BMC roster that includes both Greg van Avermaet and Thor Hushovd but not Taylor Phinney, who became another high profile withdrawal to go along with Moreno Moser, Tom Boonen, Chris Froome and the no selections of Marcel Kittel, Nacer Bouhanni and Matt Goss.

In order to realistically stand a chance, Gilbert knows that his team must shed the sprinter from the peloton. His BMC team will be aided by Cannondale as Peter Sagan has a higher chance of success when he sis sprinting from a reduced bunch.

"We're not the only one in this situation. Cannondale always do this. They did it again on the last [road] stage of Tirreno. They go full gas on the climbs to drop the sprinters. They only dropped Kittel but they did it. I think Sagan would like to be in a smaller group and he will like to play this tactic," Gilbert said.

Speaking on favourites, Gilbert had this to say:

"I think the list is longer than this [Sagan and Degenkolb]: you also have Cavendish," Gilbert said. "He just won a stage at Tirreno-Adriatico, he was better and better everyday and he has a great team also, so for me he's also there with these guys. And if we just think a little bit we can find five or six other names."

As for himself: "You know that my dream is to win all the Classics, and this year I don't do Flanders or Roubaix so my dream is to win the one I've never won before: Milan-San Remo," said Gilbert, who would bridge a 15-year gap for Belgium if he were to do so.

"Although we had to take a Russian to win the last time," he joked of Andrei Tchmil's 1999 win. The last Belgian-born winner was Fons De Wolf in 1981, but Gilbert said he paid little heed to such statistics. "It's like when I won Lombardy in 2009, it was a 29-year gap, I think [also to De Wolf - ed.]"

Gilbert is a dark horse for the race and will look to successfully fly under the radar of the sprinters team. And that is just the way he would like it to be.