The Australian Simon Yates will be the Orica GreenEDGE Cycling Team leader at the next Paris-Nice.  Last year, he did a good performance at the road to the sun and finished 11th. He hopes to shine on the French roads.

"I’m really pleased to say that next week I’m going to be the main general classification rider for my Orica-GreenEdge team at Paris-Nice. It’s going to be a great opportunity, but the only problem is I’ve been ill for the last couple of weeks and I’m not 100 per cent sure what shape I'm going to begin the race in", he explained according to Sky Sports.

He added that he did a training camp in Africa before to race Classic Sud Ardèche and La Drôme Classic the last weekend: "It all started last month. We went to South Africa for a two-week training camp and it went really well, but on the day we were travelling back, I think I must have eaten something dodgy in the airport because I felt dreadful for the whole journey home and ever since I've been trying to fight illness off. I’ve finally started to come around a bit in these past couple of days and there are still three days before Paris-Nice starts on Sunday, so I’ve got a little bit of time to keep recovering."

The route don’t really suit him: "Unfortunately, Paris-Nice starts with a prologue, and you can’t hide from the truth in a short time trial like that, but then the next three stages are all flat and although they will still be dangerous in terms of potential crashes and crosswinds, if I can hide myself away in the bunch, hopefully that will give me chance to ease myself into the race and get myself back to where I was in South Africa in time for the summit finish on stage four", he added. "I’m not really setting myself a target of where I want to finish in the general classification, and especially not after falling ill. I prefer to focus on how well I perform as a GC rider - things like how I lead the team and making sure I make the right decisions."

Yates explained also that the next race will be the Tour of the Basque Country and then, he will go to the Ardennes classics.

Erica GreenEDGE Cycling roster: Jens Keukeleire, Michael Matthews, Simon Yates, Michael Albasini, Simon Clarke, Mitchell Docker, Daryl Impey and Christian Meier.