Bahrain Merida expects Nibali and Australian Heinrich Haussler to animate the finale of the legendary Belgian race.
Nibali will no doubt race in Flanders with one eye fixed on stage 9 of this year's Tour de France. While the style of cobbles will differ from Arras to Roubaix, the tough, attrition style racing won't too much as the Sicilian adds himself to a list of skinny Tour gc'ers practicing on the hard stuff.
Riding Paris-Roubaix is perhaps a step too far for these guys given the potential for injury among the guaranteed chaos as well as hunger for the win itself dictating team rosters.
So Wednesday's semi-classic Dwars door van Vlaanderen was the race GC rivals Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and Romain Bardet (AG2R) chose.
While Quintana and Bardet concentrated on survival, Bahrain Merida wants Nibali - like Valverde who finished 11th on Wednesday - there in the finale with Haussler who finished 23rd on Wednesday with the bigger bunch.
Nibali has proven himself on the cobbles, practically floating over them in the yellow jersey on a wet stage 5 of the 2014 Tour de France, his first time racing them. The Italian finished third on that stage and won the Tour that year. While he didn't win the overall title in 2015, Nibali again raced the cobbles masterfully on a dusty stage 4 to Cambrai.
Bahrain Merida will also take Borut Bozic, Luka Pibernik, Kristijan Koren, Ivan Cortina, and Sonny Colbrelli to Flanders on Sunday.
SBS will livestream the women's race at Cycling Central Sunday 1 April, 9:30pm to 11:30pm AEST.
SBS Viceland will broadcast the men's race Sunday 1 April from 9:30pm with live streaming available at Cycling Central starting after the women's race at 11:30pm AEST.
