Trek Factory Racing is looking for WorldTour points that will allow their team car to get a good position for Fabian Cancellara's cobbled classics campaign and so they are chasing success in both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. The Schleck brothers will do the French race alongside talented Bob Jungels and Fabio Felline while Cancellara and the classics roster will head to Italy for a race where the team hopes to shine in GC with Robert Kiserlovski and Julian Arredondo.

In years past, Paris-Nice was viewed as the race for those with Tour de France ambitions, while Tirreno-Adriatico was seen as the best preparation for the first Monument of the season, Milan-Sanremo. However, the Italian weeklong race has continued to attract many strong Grand Tour contenders, with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) winning the last two editions, while this year’s Paris-Nice metamorphosed into a race that can no longer be considered a ‘mini-me’ version of the Tour de France.

With its revamped parcours that eliminated all time trials - including the prologue - and big summit finishes, Tour de France owner ASO announced that Paris-Nice “is a race for the daring”: eight stages, eight days with plenty of shorter, punchier climbs more suited to the all-rounders and puncheurs; those who are able to get over the hills and sprint for the time bonuses offered at the finishes each day.  It’s a race that very well could come down to a few seconds to decide the overall winner.

In contrast, Tirreno-Adriatico continues with the same format as last year: beginning with a team time trial and ending with a short individual race against the clock.  Sandwiched in between the two time trials will be five more days of racing, including one medium mountain stage and one high mountain stage - together these four stages should sort out the final podium in the overall classification

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With both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico overlapping on the UCI WorldTour calendar in mid-March, and both races crucial for UCI points leading into the Classics (the position of the team cars is decided by the total UCI WorldTour points of the participating riders from each team, and in races like Tour of Flanders with it’s twisty, narrow roads, or Paris-Roubaix with its cobbles, a team car near the front is of upmost importance in the case of riders’ mishaps), Trek Factory Racing selected its rosters with its focus on maximizing the best results in each.

The Tour Down Under in Australia is the only race completed so far on the WorldTour calendar, so March is shaping up to be a vital month in the fight for UCI WorldTour points.

Trek Factory Racing’s general manager Luca Guercilena stresses that it is important to score in both races and so the team have divided their stars between the two events.

“For Tirreno we organized the team with the group doing the Classics because there are many long stages; this is good preparation and possible to get a good result on these days," he said. "On top of this we have [Robert] Kiserlovski for the GC because of the long finish climb on one stage.  [Julián] Arredondo has shown good condition climbing this year already, and there are a couple of stages that should be good for him with short, steep climbs.

“For Fabian [Cancellara] it has always been in the plan to do Tirreno, it is the usual target, and for him it is the best preparation. It is not that Tirreno is easier, or harder, than Paris-Nice, rather we feel it is the better preparation for Milan-Sanremo, which is always a nervous race. And of course the TT at the end is good for him.

“For Paris-Nice there are more climbs so it should be a good race for Andy and Fränk [Schleck]. The problem for us is that normally we would have Giacomo [Nizzolo] there for the sprint stages [he is out with a broken collarbone, ed.]. Without him we have to look to the riders that can attack and go in the breakaway because we need some UCI points for the classification.

“Both Paris-Nice and Tirreno are important, so we need to split our top riders to look at getting results in both. Sanremo is the easiest of the Classics for strategy; it is long and the final climbs will make the selection, so we will arrive there with the best riders for this type of race. But we don’t need that we ride together for one week or 10 days before; we have guys that know each other quite well already. So it is better to split them and then they come together for Milan-Sanremo.”

Paris-Nice starts on Sunday while the Tirreno-Adriatico kicks off thre days later.

Trek for Paris-Nice:

Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Gregory Rast, Bob Jungels, Fabio Felline, Matthew Busche, Laurent Didier, and Danilo Hondo

Trek for Tirreno-Adriatico:

Fabian Cancellara, Robert Kiserlovski, Julian Arredondo, Stijn Devolder, Yaroslav Popovych, Hayden Roulston, and Jesse Sergent