On Sunday, Kasper Asgreen, Luke Lamperti, Alastair MacKellar, Madis Mihkels, Matthias Schwarzbacher, Colby Simmons, and Max Walker will take on Paris-Roubaix for EF Education-EasyPost.

Nina Berton, Auke De Buysser, Mirre Knaven, Alexis Magner, Caiomhe O’Brien, and Alex Volstad are set to speed over the cobbles for EF Education-Oatly.

It is going to be one heck of a race. Nina is stepping into the captain’s role for the first time in her career and is excited to send it over the cobbles in one of her favorite races. She’s dreamt of competing off the front of Paris-Roubaix ever since she was a little girl. One thing is for sure: she is going to give it her all.

Kasper Asgreen is going to go for it too. The former De Ronde winner is coming off a tough Tour of Flanders and has never cracked the code at Paris-Roubaix, but our Danish cobbles specialist is determined to play a role in the finale.

Read our captains’ thoughts before Paris-Roubaix.

I am a little bit nervous, because it is one of the biggest races out there. I have never really had this kind of role in a race before, so there’s pressure, but I think it will be fine. It is going to be a good test.

I love all of the cobbled races. 
The more cobbles and the rougher the race, the better. This year, we have three more cobbled sections, which is going to be nice. I was hoping we would have the Arenberg! Maybe next year…

Growing up, Paris-Roubaix, De Ronde, and the Tour de France were the three big races and it was my dream to ride them. When you watch them on TV, or even go to the race and watch it, the atmosphere is so nice. You can tell how much everyone is hurting and how much it matters. It is a really special race. Roubaix is one of those races where even the people who don't really care about cycling, know it, because it's such a crazy race.

You have to go through hell. Riding it, you're just in pain, and your whole body is wrecked after it. That makes it satisfying. I will be satisfied if I get to the velodrome in Roubaix and know that I didn’t just survive, but actually influenced the race in my own way. I don’t want to just go with it and see how far I can come. After the race, I want to be able to say that I took the race into my own hands, and whatever happens, it was not just luck, but was what I tried to make it.

The first few sectors will be all about positioning. We will go all out. The first goal for the team should be to enter the first three sectors at the front, ideally in the top 10. Then, we can see how many riders we can get deep into the race. For the rest, it depends how the other teams want to play it. After Mons-en-Pévèle, I would like to have a go.

Flanders was not exactly what we’d hoped for, but over the last few races we have seen that the shape is not too bad. As a team, we actually raced really well in Flanders. I think that if we can put things together on Sunday, we should be in a really good place.

I've been keeping an eye out on the wind. Earlier in the week, the forecast was for a headwind. Now, it's changed to a tailwind, which will make the race incredibly hard from very early on and will play into the hands of the strongest riders in the race. I think we saw in Flanders who that is.

I do still believe that the way to play a role in the finale is to try to avoid that big acceleration and try to get ahead of it. Even if we didn't succeed with that in Flanders, I think we have to try again and see if we can make it work this time.

I will be satisfied if I get to the Roubaix velodrome having raced the finale. Roubaix is a race where I haven't really cracked the code. There is nothing else on the calendar that is even remotely close to as hard on the body and on the material as this is. It takes a certain skill level just to survive through those 50-something kilometers of very rough cobblestones. It takes a skill set that you don't find in any other race, along with the physical strength.

The first step is getting into the finale and we will see after that.