Jens Keukeleire and Tiesj Benoot will head up Lotto Soudal`s hopes at Sunday`s Paris-Roubaix, with both riders claiming good form and clear ideas about what it takes to win the one-day cobbled Classic. Keukeleire is the more experienced of the two riders, boasting nine previous starts at Roubaix, and a best-placed finish of sixth in 2015, while it will be only Benoot`s third `Hell of the North`, with the 25-year-old having ridden the race back in 2015 and 2016, without having finished inside the top 100. However, Benoot took an impressive ninth place at last weekend`s Tour of Flanders, and has had a highly successful cobbled Classics campaign so far, taking fifth place at the Dwars door Vlaanderen, 13th at Gent-Wevelgem and 16th at the E3 BinckBank Classic, as well as fifth place as the defending champion at Strade Bianche in early March.ADVERTISEMENT `My shape certainly won´t be the problem, as I still feel fresh,` Benoot said on his team`s website. `If I can avoid bad luck and if everything falls into place, a podium spot will be amongst the possibilities. The Tour of Flanders maybe suits me a little better thanks to the climbs, as Paris-Roubaix is of course less about explosive racing. But a really hard race will certainly play to my advantage. I have to try to attack from a little further out and hope for some hesitation behind, or that some strong riders join me.` Benoot skipped last year`s Roubaix to instead rest ahead of the Ardennes Classics, after a busy spring campaign that saw him take the win at Strade Bianche. But despite having only ridden Roubaix twice before, he knows enough about what to expect, and has done his homework when it comes to the cobbled sectors. Keukeleire: I`ve never been in better shape at the start of Roubaix
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