For Simon Gerrans the lure of winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège again is no less because he already has a win in Europe's oldest classic and the fourth of five monuments to his name.
If anything, the Australian's desire to add another victory in the 261km race through the hilly and forested Belgian Ardennes to his triumph in it from 2014 is greater than before.
"It is probably even more so now," Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), 35, told Cyclingnews. "I always thought Liège was a race a little bit beyond my reach until I actually won it. When you win a race it definitely gives you plenty of confidence going back [to race it] in future editions.
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"Now I know I am capable of winning a race of that calibre and that difficulty. If anything it probably makes it more important because you have lots more confidence going into [the race]."
Gerrans' last win was in the Tour Down Under in January where he took out two stages and the overall classification. But he is buoyed for Sunday's ‘La Doyenne' by his form during his second build up for the year that began at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, where he was sixth on stage 5 and fourth on stage 6. Then at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco he had a third place finish on stage 1 and second on stage 3. At last Sunday's Amstel Gold Race he was 11th.
Gerrans did not want to dwell on the ‘whys and what ifs' of the Amstel Gold Race, where Australian teammate Michael Mathews placed fifth which led some to question if the pair should have ridden for each other. All he would say, when asked, was that their team rode to its plan that catered for two potential winners and that first placed Italian Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty-Gobert) was the strongest rider on the day.
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