Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) is hoping that his final speed work and strength training on the track in Italy will give him the power and fitness to be a contender on the Paris-Roubaix cobbles on Sunday.

While most of his competitors in Hell in the North will be competing in the Amstel Gold Race and staying in Northern Europe this week, Ganna has chosen a different approach, combining his prowess on the track with the needs of Paris-Roubaix.

The Ineos Grenadiers racer won the under-23 edition of Paris-Roubaix in 2016 and is a multiple-time track world champion; like Francesco Moser, who won Paris-Roubaix in 1978, 1979, and 1980, Ganna is looking to combine his keen to prove he is more than a track pursuit and time trialist, and uses track training to enhance his road racing form.

Ganna trains at the Montichiari track near Brescia with Marco Villa, the Italian national track coach.

"Pippo trains on a points racing bike, in a position very close to his road racing position," Villa told La Gazzetta dello Sport over the weekend.

"He uses a 60x16 fixed gear. This is close to the 54x13 or 54x14 he uses on cobblestones: two 20-minute sessions, with four to five runs on cobblestone sectors.

"Each sector is equivalent to eight or nine laps, or about 2 km. Like the peloton, we will start behind Darnley. We will then speed up to bring Ganna up to the power and cadence needed for the pavement. 60-65 km/h, cadence 95-96 times/minute, 800-1000 watts. Continue this for 2 minutes, recovering behind Darnley for about 5 km and repeating the process again.

Ganna competed in last week's stage race on the Sarthe circuit in France after missing the E3 Saxo Bank Classic and Ghent-Wevelgem due to illness. After Tirreno-Adriatico, he was already having problems, but he competed in Milano-Sanremo in a support role.

The Italian rider had hoped to participate in the full campaign of the Cobbled Classics this spring. However, illness forced him to change his plans and he will make his final peak in Paris-Roubaix.

He traveled to northern France this weekend and has already reconsulted key sectors of the race and made final tire choices for the race with Dario Cioni, the Ineos Grenadiers' directeur sportif. la Gazzetta According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Gana chose 30mm tubeless tires inflated to 5 bar.

Ganna will be joined by Amstel Gold Race winner Michał Kwiatkowski, road captain Luke Rowe, Dylan van Baarle, young British riders Ben Turner, Elia Viviani, Kim Haiduk, and Magnus Sheffield, among others, in Paris~. Roubaix, will be part of the strong Ineos Grenadier lineup.