Dimension Data have announced that Mark Cavendish will ride Paris-Roubaix for just the second time in his career next Sunday. He will do a course recon with the team on Thursday.

“The real focus for him remains Roubaix, this is because of the learning process as well,” Dimension Data performance manager Rolf Aldag told Cycling Weekly. “He always had ambitions to do a good Roubaix. You have to start somehow, somewhere to learn about it. He really loves it. It’s another milestone in the building process with Scheldeprijs.”

Aldag is keen to temper expectations for the 30 year old, who doesn’t harbor ambitions of winning the race just now, but is very keen to ride.

“I’m not saying Cav is going to go sixth in Roubaix or win, but the point is that he wants to do it. He’s interested in it. It’s something interesting, different than riding another one-day race that he already did 15 times,” Aldag said.

Aldag is very confident that the Hell of the North is a race that can suit the Manxman however, with his high power output.

“It suits him. He’s good in prologues. He can go short distances hard and fast, like in a cobble section. And he can position himself, and that’s needed before each cobble section. He’s small, but he’s not a climber’s weight and won’t bounce around the cobbles. And he’s powerful.”