Bert De Backer, John Degenkolb, Ramon Sinkeldam, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg, Dries Devenyns, Albert Timmer, Thierry Hupond, and Koen De Kort make up Team Giant-Shimano in Paris-Nice. Some of them took the opportunity to specify their ambitions for the race.

Bert De Backer

“Since Haut Var I have been feeling better every race so I will be ready to help the boys and coach them through the week. It will be a good chance to build on our teamwork, especially in the last kilometres building for the sprints.

There’s a lot of kilometres to ride so it is perfect preparation for the coming classics.”

  Ramon Sinkeldam

“My role for the race will be to help the team and John on the sprint stages and also building on my current form for the classics with lots of climbing and race kilometres.

“John should be able to get some good results in the sprints, especially in the early stages so we will ride hard for that.”

John Degenkolb

“I’m feeling good and had a great week training in Mallorca last week. The weather was great and we did all the training that we had planned. I recovered well and am ready to race.

“I’m yet to study the parcours in detail but the first three stages should be a good opportunity to go for a result so we will do what we can to finish in a sprint on those stages.”

  Dries Devenyns

“I don’t have many expectations for myself this week, but I am hoping to have good sensations and maybe to get in a strong break later in the week.

“The first few days I think we will be fighting to get John into position for the sprints. As there’s no TT’s in this race, it’s a good opportunity to get lots of racing kilometres in the legs for what is coming up after.”

  Coach, Christian Guiberteau

“The main focus early on will be the first three stages and sprinting with John, especially after the good form he showed in February.

“For the more difficult stages we will look to go out on the attack and try and get in the breakaway. There are lots of opportunities over the eight days so it should be a good race.”

You can read our preview of the race here and our preview of stage 1 here.