“A rambling race with a lot of crashes”
Mud awaits the Paris-Roubaix riders on Sunday for the 118th edition of a legendary race that cyclo-cross specialists, Dutch (Van der Poel) and Belgian (Van Aert), tackle with an advantage at the start of the 257, 7 kilometers.
“It will be a great day of cycling”, announces Florian Sénéchal, the first asset of French cycling filled last Sunday by the second world title of Julian Alaphilippe (absent this time). An epic day if the weather forecast, promising rain, comes true, due to the rarity of these conditions.
The 2001 and 2002 editions are the last ones run in rain or showers. “The current generation has not known a wet Paris-Roubaix, it will not be easy to arrive in the peloton on the sectors”, explains the last French winner (1997), Frédéric Guesdon, who became the team’s sporting director. Groupama-FDJ. He foresees “a rambling race, with a lot of crashes”.
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Its boss, Marc Madiot, twice winner of the “queen of classics”, points to the risk of curbs before the first cobbles, in Troisvilles, around the hundredth kilometer.
“I expect a very fast race if the backwind is there,” he analyzes, pointing to two big favorites, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, both world cyclo-cross champions Many times.
Van der Poel “number one favorite”
But which one to favor seven days after the world championship which saw the Dutch (8th) and the Belgian (11th) drop the flag? “The number one favorite is Van der Poel who is on the upswing,” replied Madiot. “Van Aert seems to be on a plateau. Last Sunday, we did not see the real Van Aert, he had such a weight. But, this time, he will be more liberated.”
If Van der Poel starts on the cobblestones of the North, without this seeming to disturb him (“I don’t think that the lack of experience will be a handicap”, he assures us), Van Aert knows what awaits him. In 2019, he left the Trouée d’Arenberg behind after a mechanical incident, one of the recurring hazards that is part of the lot of misfortunes (punctures, falls) told on the evening of the race.
The duel between the two men, started in their early years, weighs on this historic edition, which is held in the fall after a cancellation (2020) and a postponement of the month of April because of the health context. It is one of the keys, just like the behavior of Patrick Lefevere’s Deceuninck team, with its unchanging collective strength.
Stress and danger with rain
This time, the Belgian group is dividing its forces between four riders (in alphabetical order, Asgreen, Lampaert, Sénéchal and Stybar). “To win, we try to go to the final with as many runners as possible”, recalls the Belgian Yves Lampaert, third in 2019. But, before the Carrefour de l’Arbre (km 240), the last sector rated five stars on the scale of difficulties, the race will undoubtedly have settled down if the predictions of the technicians, riders and team managers are verified.
Danger lurks with each turn of the pedal on the side of the Trouée d’Arenberg (Km 162) and the lesser known but terrible sector of Mons-en-Pévèle (Km 209). In reality, it exists at all times, believes Arnaud Démare, a simple outsider this year compared to the established candidates (Stuyven, Vanmarcke, van Baarle and the Sagan-Politt duo).
“There will be adrenaline very early. With the rain, we are all the more stressed, it increases the risk,” said the Frenchman who despite everything relegates apprehensions to the background: “It’s a race that we like to do things, we are happy to come. “
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