Sergio Henao will be aiming to win his second Paris-Nice title when the Colombian rider leads a seven-rider line-up for UAE Team Emirates at the UCI World Tour's first major European stage race of the season.
Henao won the 2017 Paris-Nice while at Team Sky, and he enters this year's race as part of a strong UAE Team Emirates team, which includes Italy's 2015 Vuelta a Espana winner Fabio Aru, and Norwegian sprint star Alexander Kristoff.
Australian Rory Sutherland, Norway's Sven Erik Bystrom, and Italian pair Diego Ulissi and Marco Marcato complete the team.
“We'll be at Paris-Nice with Henao, already an overall winner," team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin said. "It's his first European race of 2019 after he began in the tour of Colombia.
"Diego Ulissi, who rode well in the UAE Tour, will ride at his side and Fabio Aru will compete without pressure to perform in the classification. The team is balanced. We can count on a good group of riders to support. Kristoff will aim for the first three stages that suit sprinters”.
Beginning on Sunday and ending on March 17, the 2019 Paris-Nice takes in 1,206 kilometres over eight stages. The first three stages are all flat, before a hill stage from Vichy to Pelussin. The fifth stage is a 25.5km individual time trial in Barbentane, before the second hill stage from Peynier to Brignoles.
The race then concludes with two mountain stages, with the eighth and final stage ending in Nice.
