Paris-Nice, the 'Race to the Sun', gets underway this weekend and Team Giant-Alpecin heads to the eight-day WorldTour race with a strong team to battle both on the flats and over tougher terrains.

John Degenkolb returns to the race where he took the green jersey and a Stage 3 sprint victory in 2014, together with two second spots on the opening two stages. The German sprinter already has a victory to his name this season, at the Dubai Tour, and other places of honour proving that he is already riding with some good form ahead of the important classics period.

He will be joined by Warren Barguil who started his season at the Tour of Oman where he was able to test his legs on the early season climbs. It will be a welcome return to racing on home soil for Barguil where he will be able to test himself on the tougher days as he continues to build towards his early season objectives.

Tom Dumoulin returns to racing at Paris-Nice after a period of training since the Tour Down Under. He will have a close eye on the opening prologue and to test his form over the whole week of racing, however recent sickness at training camp may knock him back in his preparation for the race.

The line-up is completed by road captain Roy Curvers, lead-out man Koen de Kort, climbing domestique Georg Preidler, as well as Ramon Sinkeldam and Zico Waeytens who continue their preparation for the classics period.

"This year's Paris-Nice, as always, presents different opportunities over the week and we have a lot of aspects to the team here to challenge with," confirmed coach Christian Guiberteau. "We would like to try to go for a good overall result with Tom, but his chances will depend on how he recovers from recent sickness. With Warren, he is still building his form but there will be good opportunities for him to test himself and also to support others here. 

"We have seen that John is in good shape already and his confidence and motivation is there so he can push to take his chances on the sprint opportunities here with good support. The first three road stages should suit the sprinters and after that we will see how the race pans out."

LINE-UP
Warren Barguil (FRA)
Roy Curvers (NED)
John Degenkolb (GER)
Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Koen de Kort (NED)
Georg Preidler (AUT)
Ramon Sinkeldam (NED)
Zico Waeytens (BEL)