Diego Rosa will be present at the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The former mountain biker hopes to shine on Belgian roads with his leader Vincenzo Nibali. He has been a friend of Fabio Aru since they raced together at the amateur level and played such a decisive part in Nibali's victory at the Tour of Lombardy last October.

"In the finale of Lombardy, I was riding the way I normally would ride for Fabio and then at a certain point, Vincenzo just pulled me up and said: ‘No, not like that. I'm not Fabio, let's do things a bit differently.' But I only needed a moment to figure it out," Rosa told Cyclingnews. "With Fabio, I ride a lot of stage races, whereas I've only really raced with Vincenzo in the Classics. With Fabio, we're often looking to prepare attacks in a certain way. With Vincenzo, we were looking to manage a completely different race situation, so it's difficult to compare. I get on fine with whichever captain I have. I just need to understand what his demands are and then ride accordingly."

Rosa also has eyes on the Olympics. "I come from mountain biking and for mountain bikers, the Olympics are the biggest event of all, so I really hope I can go there. We'll have to see how the Tour goes, but whoever has the best condition in July should go. But then again I'm an Astana rider and there are already two Astana riders who are certain to be going…"