Bradley Wiggins will commence his cobbled classics campaign by heading up a strong Team Sky line-up at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.

Wiggins was last in action at the Tour of Qatar, and has used his time since then to hone his condition and recon many of the key cobbled climbs.

He was joined on those preparation rides by Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe, and that duo will also be taking part in the Belgian curtain raiser along with Bernhard Eisel, Andy Fenn, Christian Knees, Salvatore Puccio and Chris Sutton.

Elia Viviani has also made the trip to Flanders, and Team Sky’s line-up for Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne on Sunday will be finalised on Saturday evening once the dust has settled after the day’s action.

Servais Knaven will be Sports Director for both races, and is looking forward to get the classics under way. He said: “After a good training period over the winter we have a strong group heading into the classics. We're excited to get started with this key phase of the season.

"As we all know, anything can happen during Saturday’s race, so we will sit down on Saturday night and assess how things have gone before confirming our line up for Kuurne.”

Team Sky have enjoyed a rich history in both these races, with Juan Antonio Flecha winning their first-ever appearance at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2010, and Ian Stannard goes into the 70th edition as defending champion following his hard-fought victory last season.

Chris Sutton meanwhile, claimed his biggest one-day success at Kuurne back in 2011, and Mark Cavendish made it consecutive Team Sky wins 12 months later.