Team Sky's Swede Thomas Löfkvist is pleased with the way he has started his season and will be going all out again in the 2011 Milan San-Remo on Saturday to try and maximise Team Sky's chances of success. Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for video highlights from Milano-San Remo 2011.

The Swede began his 2011 campaign by battling to sixth place overall at the Ruta del Sol last month and followed that up with another top-10 finish at Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old was using both races to build up his condition gradually ahead of a busy summer schedule and he admits he is right where he wants to be going into the first Monument of the cycling season.

He told us: "Yes, I have built up a really solid base now and I am very happy about that. Obviously, there is still some form lacking but everything is going according to plan.

"The Ruta del Sol was a really good start-up race and much harder than I expected it to be. That was a good thing though, and it helped me a lot going into Tirreno-Adriatico.

"In terms of Tirreno, everything was on a much larger scale and the competition was fiercer, which was not surprising given the level of prestige the race holds in Italy. It was another nice race to do though, and one with really hard finishes every day.

"It was encouraging for me to be up there in the standings and that spurred me on to give it my best shot. Unfortunately, the time splits weren't always on my side and I lost a couple of seconds where I perhaps shouldn't have, but in general I was very pleased with the way things went."

When Tirreno-Adriatico reached its conclusion on Tuesday, Löfkvist's attention quickly turned towards Milan-San Remo, and although the 298km trek across North-West Italy is not ideally suited to his more mountainous style, it is one that he still holds in very high regard.

He added: "I've ridden this race quite a few times before and it is one that I enjoy a lot. The length, history and speed of it is something which is always great to be part of and hopefully we can give it a really good go this year.

"Our preparation has been pretty thorough; we went down to San Remo before the start of Tirreno to have a look at the last 100km of the course, so we know what is to come and how best to approach it.

"Obviously, having ridden it about five times already, I'm starting to know the key climbs pretty well now but it's always good to refresh your memory in a race as important as this.

"Positioning is so important coming into those climbs, and you have to look at the run-ins to them closely, whilst also memorising the descents. There is often a lot of nervousness within the peloton at those times so you have to know what you are doing."

Löfkvist's role in Milan-San Remo will be to support Edvald Boasson Hagen in his bid for glory and he believes the young Norwegian has a great chance of being in the mix:

"If Edvald has good legs on the day then he has got to be one of the main contenders, for sure, and we'll all be 100% behind him.

"Although he pulled out of Tirreno a few days early, he seems to be on top of things and has done some good training since, so I'm not concerned about him at all.

"My job will be to support him towards the end, making sure he is good over the Cipressa, and then that will hopefully put him in a strong position for the final stages.

"If, for whatever reason he isn't feeling good though, then we won't be afraid to change our tactics and opportunities could then open up for guys like G [Geraint Thomas] or [Juan Antonio] Flecha."

And in terms of the other race favourites, Löfkvist feels Castelli-sponsored Team Garmin-Cervelo's World Champion Thor Hushovd and Brit Mark Cavendish of Team HTC-HighRoad could be the ones to watch.

He concluded: "Thor is riding really well at the moment and it will be interesting to see how good Cav is. He's been relatively quiet so far this season, but you never know whether that's down to his form or whether he's been saving his energies for a race like this. It going to be a really interesting race and I'm really looking forward to get going now."

Watch video highlights from the 2011 Milan-San Remo and the 2011 Tirreno-Adriatico in the video section here on Roadcycling.com.

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