Starting his 2015 season in a visibly good shape, Astana's Lieuwe Westra received a blow from his team being forced to change his initial schedule and support Vincenzo Nibali in Tirreno-Adriatico instead of participating in one of his favourite races, the Paris-Nice.

Westra finished runner-up in the Paris-Nice general classification back in 2012, winning a mountain stage to Mende in a process, but Astana's rider won't be provided with a chance to improve on those results this season.

„The team has announced that they need me in Italy,” the Dutch rider wrote on his official website, explaining that the team time trial event is exactly where his help will be appreciated.

Despite accepting a decision made by the Kazakh squad, the 32-year old rider did not hide his disappointment, calling the Paris-Nice his home event.

„Over years it has become sort of my home race. I understad the decision made by the team, though, and I look forward to doing my job [at Tirreno] and deriving some satisfaction from it. I'll return to Paris-Nice ready to achieve good results, you can count on that,” he concluded.