Despite their repeated end apparently endless string of victories in various stage races Team Sky has so far failed to translate that superiority into the spring classics, something they will be looking to rectify in Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix.

The eight-man strong squad entrusted with that assignment mirrors that of the Tour of Flanders a week earlier, with the team all motivated to bounce back from a race disrupted by illness and crashes.

Picked from the team’s core classics group, the squad blends years of experience on the cobbles with youth and promise.

The squad is as follows:

Edvald Boasson Hagen, Bernhard Eisel, Mathew Hayman, Salvatore Puccio, Gabriel Rasch, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas.