Degenkolb confident ahead of Paris-Roubaix

Milan-San Remo winner John Degenkolb will lead Giant-Alpecin at Paris-Roubaix.

SBS will broadcast Paris-Roubaix live!

The German finished second in the 2014 edition of the French classic, and will be hoping to go one better when he enters the Roubaix velodrome on Sunday.

He has exhibited strong from this season, winning a stage of the Dubai Tour in February before going on to claim the Milan-San Remo victory. A solid seventh place in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday gives the 26 year old confidence for the Hell of the North.

That was a great 99th. Ronde van Vlaanderen...I'm so happy with our team performance, thanks guys!!!now: fast recovery for next weekend😉 A photo posted by John Degenkolb (@johndegenkolb) on Apr 5, 2015 at 12:15pm PDT

"We come here with almost the same line-up we had at Flanders and are ready for an even better performance," said Giant-Alpecin coach Marc Reef.

"Everybody is really motivated to give their best for John and he will be our leader for the race. He proved what he is capable of here last year and we're hoping for another top result.

"Paris-Roubaix marks the last cobbled classic of the campaign here and after a strong team performance in Flanders where we were able to support John deep into the final we can come here with a lot of confidence."

Giant-Alpecin is only making one change to its Flanders squad for Paris-Roubaix with Tom Stamsnijder replacing Zico Waeytens.

Degenkolb will not race Wednesday's Schelderprijs as a Roubaix warm-up, and with Marcel Kittel still recovering from an early season virus the team will look to Nikias Arndt and Ramon Sinkeldam for a result in the sprinters race.

Giant-Alpecin for Paris-Roubaix: Nikias Arndt (GER),Roy Curvers (NED), Bert De Backer (BEL), John Degenkolb (GER), Koen de Kort (NED), Ramon Sinkeldam (NED), Tom Stamsnijder (NED) and Albert Timmer (NED).

SBS will broadcast Paris-Roubaix live on Sunday 12 April: from 2130 AEST on SBS ONE for Eastern states, South Australia and Northern Territory, and from 1930 AWST on SBS2 for Western Australia. The race will also be streamed live here on Cycling Central.