Team Sky finally managed to have some impact during the cobbled classics season with one victory and several top ten places, courtesy of Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins, but it doesn’t change the fact that their campaign was marred by a plaque of crashes and apparently a bad luck still haunts the British Team as they failed to deliver any respectable result at the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday.

An absence of Sky’s best card to play, Colombian Sergio Henao, certainly was a huge blow to their Ardennes campaign, but still the expectations had to be higher than the 39th place obtained by Edvald Boasson Hagen, the best rider of the British squad at the Dutch classic race.

Despite the lack of Henao, Sky’s roster will undergo further changes ahead of the second part of the Ardennes triptych – the Fleche Wallonne, as the cobbled specialists Boasson Hagen and Thomas will finally enjoy their well-deserved breaks, being replaced by debuting in the classics in-form Peter Kennaugh and Mikel Nieve.

"They all gave it 100% and you can't ask for any more than that. Christian [Knees], Danny [Pate], Ian [Boswell] and Josh [Edmondson] were really good today and Nathan [Earle] did a lot of work as well," Nicolas Portal said according to Team Sky official website.

"We couldn't give Edvald as much support as we'd wanted in those last 20km though, and that showed when those last attacks went on the Cauberg.

"We have Pete [Kennaugh], Mikel [Nieve] and David [Lopez] coming in [...] for Flèche Wallonne so I think we will be much fresher for that, and if we avoid any more bad luck, we should be in good shape."

Team Sky’s roster will undergo further changes ahead of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, with Christopher Froome and Richie Porte joining the squad for the 100th edition of the Ardennes monument attended by pure climbers as a part of their Tour de France preparations.

Team Sky for the 78th La Flèche Wallonne: 

Ian Boswell, Nathan Earle, Josh Edmondson, Peter Kennaugh, David López, Mikel Nieve, Danny Pate, Ben Swift.