For Alexander Kristoff, with no place in the UAE Team Emirates squad for the Tour de France and no chance to win the exceptionally hilly World Championships and Olympics, success or failure in 2020 will essentially come down to the seven weeks from the end of February to mid-April, the early season from the sprints to Paris-Roubaix.

In the cycling world, this concentration on a specific block of races is not uncommon and could be much worse.

For 32-year-old Christophe, who has raced nearly 80 days a season in recent years and has competed in the Tour de France every summer since 2013, the change in program means that the pressure will be unusually high this spring, and the Giro d'Italia is the Grand Tour sprint's The biggest chance: UAE Team Emirates has opted to send Tadej Pogacar and Fernando Gaviria to the Tour de France.

On the racing front, Christophe's early season schedule has also changed. Fans of Middle Eastern racing may know that Christophe is the record holder for stage wins in the Tour of Oman, with nine to Andre Greipel's five, but even before the race was canceled, Christophe had won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Clásica de Almería to start the season, and was scheduled to compete in this week's Volta ao Algarve.

After this Iberian block, he will return with some trepidation to the "opening weekend" of the Classics in Belgium, with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 29 and Kuhne Brusselkoorn on March 1.

"There will certainly be other races after the spring, but I can say with confidence that I would rather win in Roubaix and Flanders than in Hamburg or the Plouay GP," said Christophe.

"There are only eight Classics races, so there are not endless opportunities. But I was able to make a bit of a comeback last year and I hope to do the same in 2019."

Christophe won last year's Ghent-Wevelgem and finished third in the Tour de Flanders, combining endurance and speed well.

"I've never done well in the opening weekend. After competing in Het Nieuwsblad, I was always nervous for the later classics.

"In my experience, I was way off the pace at Nieuwsblad, and a month later in Flanders I was doing well. But it's hard to stay on form all the time."

Christophe recalls that Greg Van Avermaat (CCC Team) was strong from February to late April. This probably refers to when the Belgian won Het Nieuwsblad and won E3, Ghent-Wevelgem, and Paris-Roubaix in the 2017 "Golden Greg" season. But everything about van Avermaat that spring was exceptional.

Christophe found hope for his early spring form in the results of the Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana, where he began his 2020 season. He finished third in the first stage, fourth in the fifth stage, and second in Sunday's Clasica de Almeria, ahead of Elia Viviani (Cofidis) despite losing to Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe).

"I feel like I'm getting a little better. Last year I was second in the last stage and here I was third. Last year I also raced in Mallorca, where I had a really bad result.

Apart from the harsh reality of results, Christophe is aware of a serious problem for the classic racers ahead of the opening weekend: "I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to the final stage.

"It's whether I'm the right weight. If you look at the pictures from when I won in Wevelgem, I certainly wasn't the skinniest.

"Also, my bike has changed. Last year I used a Colnago concept aero bike, now I use a V3R. It's a little less aero, but it's comfortable and a little lighter. For the classics, the lighter acceleration out of the corners helps, and the cobblestones are better."

But this is a small variation on a larger theme: the 2020 Giro d'Italia will be a veritable voyage in the dark, he says.

Asked how he plans to get in shape for May after the peak of the cobbled classics in April, Christophe replied somewhat ruefully, "I have to train."

"Instead, I will keep my base level in good shape, but it is very difficult to peak from that form. I didn't get it right a couple of times in the Tour, so I don't know if I can do that in the Giro.

"If I have a good enough level, I should be able to fight in the sprint stages and the slightly hilly stages, but for me this year, the main thing is the eight spring classics races."