Paris-Roubaix, a chicane before the Arenberg Forest sparks controversy. Van der Poel: “But is it a joke?”

Sacrilege to Paris-Roubaix. “But it’s a joke,” commented Van der Poel. There is something new that makes purists of the Queen of the classics shudder. For safety reasons, the riders competing on Sunday will be forced to go through a chicane before entering the Arenberg Forest, the symbolic moment of Roubaix. Immediately after the famous level crossing, the old Wallers station and the stretch of railway that precedes the entrance to the Forest you will turn right, then a sharp turn to the left, a few more meters and again to the right. A zig-zag that will serve to significantly lower the speed of entry into the Forest, from 60 to 30 per hour. The riders asked for the change. A Formula One style choice for a sport that is significantly increasing its speed and sense of limits.

“A request from the runners’ union”

The race director Thierry Gouvenou he explained the decision thus: «The prefecture gave the ok to the chicane and therefore we can give a positive response to the request of the riders who, through the CPA (the union, chaired by Adam Hansen) wanted this slowdown. In this way the riders would have to face the chicane at a speed of 25-20 km/h but this is a temporary solution while in the long run it will be necessary to think of something different. It is not by asking the organizers to change the route as in this case that the races will be made safer. We need to reflect on behaviors, materials, everything.”

Declercq: “It was necessary to change”

However, the chicane issue sparked a heated debate: “I was one of those who proposed to ASO to do this thing – the words of the Lidl-Trek rider Tim Declercq – over the years the Arenberg Forest has become worse and worse, year after year. Crazy things happened. Many careers were interrupted due to the falls that occurred along that stretch. Something needed to change. Everyone says cycling needs to be safer. Then as soon as someone makes a proposal, what you do is only look at the possible disadvantages. Which is something typical of cycling. With the chicane, the speed entering the Forest will be between 30 and 35 kilometers per hour. I’m not saying that there won’t be failures, but that the consequences will be less serious. There’s a big difference with the 70 km/h at which we entered before: in those conditions, it was almost certain that there would have been a fall, between the tenth and fortieth position of the group.”