Sir Bradley Wiggins will miss Liege-Bastogne-Liege (April 21) in his build-up to contesting the Giro d'Italia in May.
Earlier this year, Wiggins' participation in Liege had been widely mooted, but he will skip the Ardennes Classic. The 2012 Tour de France winner will take part in the Giro del Trentino over April 16-19 and then go straight into the Giro d'Italia.
Chris Froome, Richie Porte and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke have all been named on Sky's team for Liege-Bastogne-Liege, with Porte and Tiernan-Locke also riding Fleche Wallonne on April 17.
Froome and Porte are then in action in the Tour of Romandie (April 23-28), one of the races that Wiggins won last year before taking the Tour victory in July. Froome has already won the Tour of Oman and Criterium International, and Porte has won Paris-Nice and placed second in Criterium International and Tour of the Basque Country this year. Froome will be Sky's leader at the Tour in July, with support from Porte and Wiggins.
Young British climber Josh Edmondson will be part of the Fleche Wallonne and Romandie rosters, whilst fellow Brit Peter Kennaugh takes part in Trentino with Wiggins and Romandie with Froome.
Sky's 2013 Classics campaign has so far been devoid of a win, so it will be interesting to see if the Grand Tour riders can grab a victory in the Ardennes as they edge towards their seasons' main objectives.
Wiggins has undertaken a completely different programme of racing and training this season compared to last year as he heads towards the Giro d'Italia. His best result so far in 2013 has been fifth overall at the Volta a Catalunya in March. At this point last year he'd won a stage of the Tour of Algarve and a stage and overall of Paris-Nice.
"The Giro is something I'd really love to try and win. So, it's having a different set of challenges, completely different to last year... [Avoiding] having a direct comparison with last year when the training is different because we're training for a completely different goal," Wiggins told Cycling Weekly at the Tour of Oman.
Team Sky's rosters for April races
Amstel Gold Race (April 14)
Edvald Boasson Hagen, Josh Edmondson, Mathew Hayman, Sergio Henao, Vasil Kiryienka, Salvatore Puccio, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, Rigoberto Uran
Fleche Wallonne (April 17)
Josh Edmondson, Sergio Henao, Vasil Kiryienka, Richie Porte, Salvatore Puccio, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, Rigoberto Uran
Liege-Bastogne-Liege (April 21)
Chris Froome, Sergio Henao, Vasil Kiryienka, David Lopez, Danny Pate, Richie Porte, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, Rigoberto Uran
Giro del Trentino (April 16-19)
Dario Cataldo, Joe Dombrowski, Peter Kennaugh, Christian Knees, Danny Pate, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Bradley Wiggins, Xabier Zandio
Tour de Romandie (April 23-28)
Josh Edmondson, Chris Froome, Peter Kennaugh, Vasil Kiryienka, David Lopez, Richie Porte, Gabriel Rasch, Chris Sutton
Related links
Wiggins working on explosive climbing ahead of Giro d'Italia
UCI WorldTour calendar 2013
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