Goss chasing more early-season success at Paris-Nice

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HTC-Highroad's Matt Goss is eyeing a stage win at Paris-Nice starting this weekend, in what would be a continuation of the Australian's sensational early-season form.

Overall victory at the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic in Victoria was followed by a second place to Jack Bobridge in the Australian national road titles at Mt Buninyong during January, before he took out the Santos Tour Down Under prelude, the Cancer Council Classic. A stage win later that week and second overall in the Australian World Tour race preceded another stage win, this time at the Tour of Oman.

"I've done Paris-Nice once before and it didn't go too badly, but this season has been the best start I've ever had to a year, so that's great for my confidence," Goss said.

"There are two flat stages at the start of the race, so the leader's jersey is a possibility, which makes it pretty exciting."

"The third stage is hillier, particularly at the end, but I'll try my best there, afterwards in the mountainous stages it'll be a question of working for the team's GC guys and getting good form for the Classics."

Tony Martin will be other go-to man for HTC-Highroad. He along with Tejay Van Garderen took out the first two podium spots at the Volta ao Algarve last month.

"Matt's had great form since the start of the year so it's only normal for him to want to get some more wins in," said HTC-Highroad's directeur sportif Allan Peiper. "We're also very hopeful about Tony's chances in the general classification.

"The mid-race time trial is long enough to decide a lot of what happens overall, and we know that Tony and Tejay, who are both specialists in that area, are going well. Paris-Nice has a really good field this year, but we've got two very good cards to play overall."