Roche and Deignan set for very different Team Sky encounters

Nicolas Roche will not be riding with Chris Froome in Italy, instead he will be trying to help Richie Porte win Paris-Nice.

Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan will be in stage race action for Team Sky in coming days but in completely different parts of the world.

Roche is set to ride Paris-Nice, which begins on Sunday, and Deignan will line out at the Tour de Langkawi starting on the same day.

At Paris-Nice, Roche will be part of a line-up that includes Richie Porte and Bradley Wiggins.

Porte will be team leader and will be trying to take a second win in the week-long event where he claimed the final yellow jersey back in 2013.

Also in the squad are Bernhard Eisel, Lars-Petter Nordhaug, Luke Rowe, Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas.

While Porte will be hunting the overall win and Wiggins tuning his form ahead of an assault on Paris-Roubaix, Thomas will also be looking to make his mark.

The Commonwealth Games champion recently took overall victory in the Volta ao Algrave and was the leader of Paris-Nice for two days last year before a crash ended his hopes.

Roche rode very well in the Vuelta A Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol the week before last where he helped to set up the winning attack for Froome.

Philip Deignan will get to test his climbing legs at the Tour de Langkawi starting on Sunday.

Absent from the Paris-Nice line-up is Chris Froome. Instead he will lead another Team Sky selection at Tirreno-Adriatico.

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It begins next Tuesday and in recent years has displaced Paris-Nice as the spring battle of those expected to lock horns for Tour de France yellow in July.

In Langkawi, Deignan will ride in the service of Colombian Sebastian Henao.

The teams are limited to six riders and as well as Henao and Deignan, also riding for Team Sky are Ian Boswell, Nathan Earle, Danny Pate and Chris Sutton.

Deignan said he was looking forward to getting stuck in.

"I've done (Langkawi) a couple of times before and it's been a nice race. It's a good race to get condition, and you can come out of it with quite good form because it's eight days if you look after yourself well."