But the Team BikeExchange pair may be foiled by one of their own as Richie Porte, Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jai Hindley (Team DSM) shape as legitimate threats in the hilly eight-day slog that serves as the traditional lead-in to Europe's stage-race season.

Hamilton burst onto the scene at the 2019 Giro d'Italia, matching it with the world's best general classification riders to finish 25th on his Grand Tour debut.

Now 25, he will be pushed to the front of Gerry Harvey's GreenEdge outfit, which became known as Team BikeExchange at the beginning of the year.

"We will try to put Hamilton in the best position for the general classification," team sports director and former Paris-Roubaix winner Mathew Hayman said ahead of Sunday night's (AEDT) first stage.

"Lucas has been developing a lot in the past couple of years and we will try to support him during the race to help keep his development growing during the season."

A Tour de France green jersey winner during his four years with Sunweb, Matthews hopes to add to his three career stage wins at the event in GreenEdge's return.

"I'm glad to be back ... and being at Paris-Nice for my first race brings back some great memories for me," he said.

"We have been working really hard during the winter; the team spirit is as good as when I left it and this motivates me a lot to work hard with the rest of the boys and do everything we can for the team."

Compatriots Luke Durbridge and Alex Edmondson will also ride for Team BikeExchange while Porte, third in last year's Tour de France and a two-time Paris-France winner, and last season's Giro d'Italia runner-up Hindley should also be prominent.

After some quality downtime at home in Tasmania, Porte could push teammate and 2020 Giro d'Italia victor Tao Geoghegan Hart for overall honours while two-time world time trial champion Dennis will get his chance to explode over 14.4km on stage three.

2020 Tour de France runner-up Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) will also compete.

Australian Associated Press