Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep)
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Niki Terpstra celebrates the biggest victory of his career at Paris-Roubaix in 2014 (pic: Sirotti)
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Niki Terpstra defends his Paris-Roubaix title after finishing second at the Tour of Flanders (pic: Sirotti)
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Alexander Kristoff celebrates his Tour of Flanders victory in 2015 (pic: Sirotti)
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Sir Bradley Wiggins will bid farewell to Team Sky after Paris-Roubaix (Pic: Sirotti)
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Milan-San Remo champion John Degenkolb was second at Paris-Roubaix last year (pic: Sirotti)
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Lars Boom leads Astana at Paris-Roubaix, having conquered the cobbles to win stage five of the Tour de France last year (pic: Sirotti)
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Andre Greipel showed lots of attacking intent at the Tour of Flanders (pic: Sirotti)
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Peter Sagan has cut a frustrated figure of late and Tinkoff-Saxo have much to prove (pic: Sirotti)
Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep)
Runner-up at the Tour of Flanders, Niki Terpstra showed he has returned to form nicely ahead of the defence of his Paris-Roubaix crown.
Last year, though clearly a contender, he was able to take advantage of the peloton watching and marking team leader Tom Boonen to burst clear and solo to an impressive victory.
He will not have such a luxury this year, but neither did he at the Tour of Flanders and yet he still showed great strength and timing to go clear and contest the victory with Alexander Kristoff.
That was his fourth runner-up spot of the year, after second place finishes at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Ronde van Zeeland Seaports and Gent-Wevelgem preceded it.
The Tour of Qatar is the only time he has stood atop the podium, but the form is clearly there and if he can show the same sense of timing and blistering acceleration he showcased 12 months ago then he is more than capable of adding a second cobblestone trophy to his mantelpiece.
Etixx-QuickStep have plenty of strength in numbers too – if not Terpstra, do not be surprised to see Zdenek Stybar, fifth last year and sixth – after a spectator caused him to crash – in 2013 – also feature at the sharp end.