The Astana Kazakstan team announced that Gianni Moscon did not start Friday's stage in the Ituriá Basque region in order to compete in Sunday's Paris-Roubaix.

Moscon finished fourth in the 2021 "Hell of the North" stage after leading the race in the final sector but suffering a puncture on the wet cobblestones.

Final winners Sonny Colbrelli, Florian Vermersch, and Mathieu van der Pol overtook Moscon, with Moscon finishing alone in 44 seconds.

Moscon suffered the effects of a long COVID in 2022 and faced a stop-start in the 2023 season after breaking his collarbone in the Tour Down Under. However, he recently spent time in the Italian highlands and competed in the Volta a Catalunya and this week's Iturria Basque stage race.

UCI rules do not allow a rider to leave one race to start another if the events overlap, but Ituria will finish Saturday afternoon and Paris-Roubaix will start Sunday morning.

Moscon will lead the Astana Kazakstan team in Paris-Roubaix, with Cees Bol, Gleb Silica, Evgeny Fedorov, Dmitry Gruzdev, Igor Chan, and Martin Lars also in the lineup.

Mark Cavendish will not be in the Astana Kazakstan lineup and is expected to compete in the Giro di Sicilia next week in preparation for the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.

Moscon is expected to compete in the Ardennes Classics in late April before the Giro d'Italia.