Thursday's GP Dunain has a relatively minor position among the spring cobbled classics: 1. The Pro race is held a few days before the first monument of the season, Milan-San Remo, a week before the cobbles come to the World Tour ahead of Flanders and Roubaix.

Big names such as Arnaud Demare, Mathieu van der Pol, and Jasper Philipsen have all won early spring races at Dunain in recent years.

Adam Yates, fresh from Paris-Nice, will start for Ineos Grenadiers, and race winner Primos Roglic will join him, along with Jonas Vingegaard, last year's runner-up in the Tour de France.

The trio will tackle 12 sectors of 19.4 km of pavé during the 200 km race. None of the sectors will appear in the crucial fifth stage of the Tour to Arenberg, but getting a feel for the cobblestones will be key for Roglic, Vingegaard, and Yates.

"We're not starting the race with an eye on winning," said Jumbo Visma coach Grischa Niermann. 'We want to have a good race and learn a lot from it.' [Jonas Vingegaard and Primosz Roglic will also start with us. We will be happy if we can get a good result on Thursday, but especially to see how we can support Jonas and Roglic."

The race offers GC contenders a gentler introduction to the cobbles than Paris-Roubaix, which has more than 30 sections.

Others are Classics specialists Niki Terpstra (Total Energies), Oliver Naessen (AG2R Citroen), Dries de Bonde (Alpecin Phoenix), and sprinter Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates), Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) and others will run.

"This race offers great opportunities for the rest of the team. If it comes down to a sprint race, David Dekker, for example, will be a force to be reckoned with."

"GP Denain is Leonard Hofstede's first race of the season and he is eager to ride.

Mick van Dijk, Pascal Eenkhorn, and Timo Roosen will race in Jumbo Visma's seven-man team.