Paris-Roubaix is nothing if not unpredictable so there are a number of dark horses worth considering – not least Andre Greipel.

Greipel looked in good nick at the Tour of Flanders, finishing 15^th after a number of accelerations in the front group as Lotto-Soudal enjoyed a solid afternoon.

The Gorilla has previously spoken of adding a Classic to a palmares packed with stage wins and his performance at the Ronde shows he is building up some good form.

Paris-Roubaix, he says, is a race that suits him despite billing it as a ‘utopia’ but he was unable to prove that last year after crashing out of Gent-Wevelgem a fortnight earlier.

This time out, however, he has started his season later and has come into form at seemingly the right moment to give it a decent shot.

He is certainly fast enough in a sprint – though three-millionths of a second cost him the last time he went wheel-to-wheel with Kristoff, at De Panne.

Lotto-Soudal have strength in depth too, with Tiesj Benoot and Jurgen Roelandts in the top-ten at the Ronde and Greipel and Belgian champion Jens Debusschere also showing well.

Though Lotto-Soudal are the lesser-fancied of the two Belgian WorldTour teams – often in the shadow of Etixx-QuickStep – the underdogs are still more than capable of delivering a big bite in Roubaix.