The Tour of Flanders celebrates its 100th edition this Sunday with several riders taking to the start line in Bruges capable of winning the Belgian Monument.
Three-time winner Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) will start his final De Ronde as a favourite for the record fourth title. The 35-year-old has four wins to his name in 2016 but enters the 255km race with a mixed start to his classics campaign so far having finishing fourth at both E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem.
Peter Sagan won his first race in the rainbow jersey as World Champion at Gent-Wevelgem and will be looking for his first monument victory on Sunday. Sagan finished on the podium in 2013 behind Cancellara and his form appears looking to be peaking at the right time for a return to the dais.
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Defending champion Alexander Kristoff was imperious form earlier in the season as he won five stages at the Tours of Oman and Qatar but found the going a a little tougher in Europe on his return. The Katusha rider was second at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne with an apparent cold then hampering his other performances across the classics. However Kristoff looks to be coming around as his stage 1 win at the Three Days of De Panne suggests.
Greg Van Avermaet leads a strong BMC squad at the Tour of Flanders after a solid start to the classics that yielded a win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and can't be discounted at the pointy end of the race. Etixx-Quick Step have the greatest depth of all the teams to line up at the Tour of Flanders but for all their strength, the Belgian team has little to celebrate across the 2016 classics campaign so far. In Nikki Terpstra and Tom Boonen, the team have two aces in their hand but how they play their cards will be close interest come Sunday.
Lotto Soudal's Tiesj Benoot and Jürgen Roelandts are two riders capable of pulling an upset win and as a Belgian team on Belgian soil, Flanders is their Champions League final equivalent.
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