After last weekend's dominant performance at the Tour of Flanders, Fabian Cancellara starts the favourite for Sunday's Paris-Roubaix with the defending champion, Tom Boonen, looking for revenge after being blown away on home soil in the national champion's jersey last weekend.

Boonen has made his intentions clear and, in a race that takes in many areas that saw battle in World War I, has declared war between his Quick Step squad and Cancellara's Saxo Bank.

The strength in Saxo Bank lies in the amount of cards they have to play with Matti Breschel and Stuart O'Grady. O'Grady is a proven performer having won in 2007 but is likely to be busy looking after Cancellara, as will Baden Cooke.

Matti Breschel, 10th last year and 15th at the recent Tour of Flanders, will also be calling on O'Grady and Cooke's support. Regardless of Cancellara's favouritism O'Grady can't be underestimated. You just never know.

At Quick Step the danger man beyond Boonen is Stijn Devolder. The 2008 and 2009 Flanders winner has hardly been seen this season until last Sunday.

But if Devolder is to take the win for Quick Step he'll need to get to the velodrome on his own as if he find himself alongside any of the Saxo Bank contenders odds are he'll be beaten in the sprint.

Waiting in the wings, particularly if these two teams are too focused on each other, will be Team Sky.

Juan Antonio Flecha has seen the podium a few times at the velodrome but not the top step and is sure to be in the mix again. Unfortunately for Sky, and for the race, Edvald Boasson Hagen won't be starting due to an achilles heal injury.

In addition to having Flecha, the other option for Sky is Mathew Hayman who will be joined by fellow Australian Chris Sutton along with New Zealand's Greg Henderson.

Although Hayman says he'll be riding for Flecha he showed more than enough strength at Flanders to suggest that a podium finish for the diesel engine from Canberra isn't out of the question if things fall his way.

Another young contender to watch is Rabobank's Lars Boom but the distance may still be a little too much for the former cyclo-cross world champion in his first year targeting the classics on the road.

The Dutch team is expected to throw most of its support behind Sebastian Langeveld.

Then there's a long list of regular contenders including George Hincapie, Alessandro Ballan, Bernhard Eisel, Thor Hushovd and Filippo Pozzato.

Of the other Australians, Brett Lancaster is expected to be sighted regularly at the front looking after Hushovd for Cervelo and has all the skills required to handle the cobbles.

As an Olympic Games gold medallist and former pink jersey wearer at the Giro d'Italia he also has the runs on the board to show he deserves a spot at the sharp end of the peloton.

At HTC-Columbia Adam Hansen will lay it all down for his team, but Matt Goss, if given the opportunity to look after himself, could be with the front group until the closing stages of the race.

His third place finish at last year's Gent-Wevelgem is ample evidence of his long term potential in the cobbled classics.

Cameron Wurf (Androni Giocattoli) may find the technical aspects of the race a little too much to handle while Mitch Docker (Skil-Shimano) continues to improve and will be aiming to get a finish under his belt in his second attempt at the race.

And Robbie McEwen makes a return to Roubaix. McEwen's role will be to support Katusha's Pozzato and Serguei Ivanov. With the kilometres leading up to the Forrest of Arenberg being much like the lead out for a sprint at the end of a Tour de France stage who better than McEwen to get his team leaders in the right position.

Given the amount of variables in the race with the weather playing a part, crashes, the inevitable punctures it's one of the hardest races to pick the winner. But what about you, who do you think will win? Paris-Roubaix is live on SBS One from 10pm on Sunday 11 April.