Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep)
Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep)
Runner-up last year, Niki Terpstra has since gone from possible contender to probable – not least thanks to his Paris-Roubaix triumph.
The team messed up badly at the Omloop, as Terpstra, Tom Boonen and Stijn Vandenbergh failed to make a 3-1 numerical advantage as they and Ian Stannard (Team Sky) escaped the clutches of the peloton in the closing stages.
With Boonen out of the entire Classics campaign, Terpstra will be the man at the centre of their cobbled campaign – though any one of the Belgian super team’s riders could top the podium without it being a particular surprise.
Czech champion Zdenek Stybar won Strade Bianche and will be keen to bounce back from his Milan-San Remo crash, while Yves Lampaert has already tasted success in Harelbeke at the Three Days of West Flanders.
Iljo Keisse, Matteo Trentin, Nikolas Maes, Guillaume van Keirsbulck and Vandenbergh complete a fiercely-strong provisional line-up, packed with options.
Keisse, Terpstra and team-mate Lukasz Wisniowski warmed up for this race by dominating the Ronde van Zeeland Seaports – Keisse leading the QuickStep trio home, more than two minutes ahead of fourth-placed team-mate Lampaert.
In such an unpredictable race – and against a much stronger field – such domination seems unlikely, but if any team can it is QuickStep – and at the very least they will want to go one better than Terpstra’s second-place last year.