Last year’s world number one Alejandro Valverde kick-started his season with an incredible three stage wins the Volta a Catalunya on his way to second overall.

And he will enter the Amstel Gold Race looking to add the race to a palmares which already includes two La Flèche Wallonne and two Liege-Bastogne-Liege wins.

Should he add the Netherlands’ contribution to Ardennes Week to his CV, he would become only the seventh man to win all three.

He has come close before, however, with second-place in 2013 and fourth in 2014 and proved in Catalunya he is both climbing well and sprinting well too.

Gorka Izagirre, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Jonathan Castroviejo are among the riders lending support to Valverde, who finished inside the top-five in every WorldTour race he competed in last year.

The Spaniard, 34, looks to be a near cert for the podium if he can avoid catastrophe, but he will want – and is more-than capable of delivering – more.