The cycling world will be interested to see how Fabio Aru of Astana fairs in his Ardennes Classics debut. The young Italian is a great climber and Grand Tour rider but only raced three one-day events in the whole of 2015.

“Fabio’s very motivated and his condition is good, but these are very particular races, especially tomorrow with the narrow, twisting roads. It needs a lot of concentration,” Astana diecteur sportif Stefano Zanini told Cyclingnews in Maastricht on Saturday.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the race that on paper suits him best, where he will ride with Vincenzo Nibali.

“Liège is certainly a race that will better for him,” Zanini said. “The climbs are real climbs, whereas here, they’re short and punchy, they’re more like ramps. Liège is better-suited to him, but Amstel is very useful as preparation for that and in general.”

Zanini says his rider is motivated to do one-day races and believes that learning how to race them can help him in future Grand Tours too.

“I think he wants to learn how to do one-day races. It’s an important experience and it could also simply prove useful to him when he comes across this kind of terrain in Grand Tours in the future,” Zanini said.