Rui Costa and Diego Ulissi will pair up to lead UAE Team Emirates in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco starting on Monday.

The event is considered one of the most demanding week long stage races on the World Tour calendar, favouring strong climbers and puncheurs.

The UAE duo will be supported by an experienced team in northern Spain including Jan Polanc and Matteo Bono.

Joining them will be the promising trio of Anass Ait El Abdia, Manuele Mori and Aleksandr Riabushenko.

Costa, who was forced to withdraw from the Paris-Nice after crashing twice during the first stage, is relishing the prospect of stepping up his preparations for April’s Ardennes Classics.

He said: “I took a week off to rest after my crash. However, I feel fine now, since I’ve started training again with good results.

“I will make it to the Vuelta al Pais Vasco with plenty of room to improve my fitness level; I hope to finish the race on a high note and achieve a good result, because this is a race that appeals to me precisely because of its ruggedness.”

Ulissi added: “The goal is to be ready in each stage and to put in consistently good performances, also keeping in mind that the Basque competition is an important launching pad for the Ardennes Classics and could give me interesting signals as to what shape I’m in.”

The race starts on Monday with a 166km ride from Zarautz to Zarautz with Alejandro Valverde of Team Movistar bidding to win his second successive title in the Basque country.

Line-up: Anass Ait El Abdia (Morocco), Matteo Bono (Italy), Rui Costa (Portugal), Manuele Mori (Italy), Jan Polanc (Slovenia), Aleksandr Riabushenko (Belorussia), Diego Ulissi (Italy)