Team Sky's Michal Kwiatkowski will be skipping the Cobbled Classics in order to peak his form for the Ardennes; namely the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Kwiatkowski is a former World Champion, and sprung on to the pro scene with victory in the prologue at the Three Days of West Flanders in 2011.

Last year he outmanoeuvred Peter Sagan to win E3 Harelbeke, which is as close a race to the Tour of Flanders as you'll get. But the Pole will not be present in any of the Flanders Classics this Spring.

'Flanders was disappointing [last year],' he said, 'and the Ardennes Classics even worse. During the winter I had to make some decisions, and I want to win.'

Before a disappointing Ardennes campaign in 2016, Kwiatkowski won Amstel Gold in 2015, and in 2014 - when riding for Omega Pharma-Quickstep, he was third in both Flèche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

It is expected that after the Volta ao Algarve, where Kwiatkowski finished third on stage two behind Daniel Martin and Primoz Roglic, he will do Strada-Bianche (which he won in 2014), Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and Pais Vasco before the Ardennes.