Team Dimension Data will put their trust in Edvald Boasson Hagen when the riders line up for the 116th Paris-Roubaix cycling race in France on Sunday.
The Norwegian professional started his season on a high note when he finished fourth in the 180km Dwars door Vlaanderen recently.
Joining him on the start line will be Belgian Julien Vermote, who is nursing a shoulder injury, and South Africans Ryan Gibbons, Nic Dougall, Jaco Venter, Jay Thomson and Johann van Zyl.
Edvald Boasson Hagen is Team Dimension Data’s favoured rider for the Paris-Roubaix, which takes place in France on Sunday. Photo: Stiehl Photography
Gibbons recently finished 53rd out of 173 international riders in the 250.8km Gent-Wevelgem in Belgium.
Paris-Roubaix, the third top-shelf road race of the year, is also known as the “queen of the cobble classics” and the “Hell of the North”.
It takes riders along a 257km route with 29 cobble sectors, which are all rated on a five-star scale in terms of difficulty and cover 54.5km.
Team Dimension Data’s sport director Rolf Aldag has said they can only hope for nice, fast conditions, but will deal with whatever comes up.
“Hell of the North is always a battle, no matter what, and it will be a big fight,” he said this week.
Aldag feels history could be made this weekend. “In Lombardy or Liege-Bastogne-Liege you’re not going to win if you’re not the strongest, but in this race you always have a chance because you could have some luck or others may have bad luck.
“That is what motivates the guys to come back year after year to give Roubaix a shot. We are in that situation, but we’ll be the underdogs on Sunday.”
The Dimension Data lineup for the Paris-Roubaix:
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Julien Vermote
Ryan Gibbons
Nic Dougall
Jaco Venter
Jay Thomson
Johann van Zyl
