He did say in an interview with Armstrong, Hincapie& Brunyeel that he is definitely stronger than last year and feels his training program is much better.I agree he looks stronger than last year, but I still think it's too early to talk about a significant improvement. In the Northern classics he now has the advantage of being part of a stacked team, so it can't be ruled out that he'll win of them, if he gets the opportunity to attack like he did in Omloop.
He goes in quite detail about how he works hard but is far far less fatigued during training blocks.
I thought he went out of his way to not trash Movistar but his description of the difference between the teams is startling