Two years ago it was canceled due to the pandemic, in 2021 it took place in autumn and Italy was inflamed by the feat of a Sonny Colbrelli who won in the name and in the sign of fatigue, covered in mud.
Now the Paris-Roubaix, queen of the Northern classics, returns to its traditional location in spring and for the French who have not won it since 1997, when Frederic Guesdon prevailed, it continues to be a curse to dispel.
They will try again tomorrow, 257 kilometers long (55 of which on stretches of cobblestones, including the one in the Arenberg forest) to arrive at the coal city velodrome.
Meanwhile, for Italy - which Colbrelli is absent due to his heart problems, he aims everything for a fantastic encore on Filippo Ganna, already winner in 2016 as an amateur - joy arrives, which hopefully is also a good omen,
of the success of a great Elisa Longo Borghini in the women's race: the blue obtained it in the most convincing way, that is an imperious extension 34 km from the finish that allowed her to go on to win by detachment and screaming with happiness in the velodrome of Roubaix.
And it was nice to see her win wearing the tricolor jersey of the Italian champion, another emotion after that of Colbrelli.
Excellent fifth for Marta Cavalli, who won the Amstel Gold Race a week ago.
"To think that I shouldn't have been there - the words of the Piedmontese Olympic bronze medalist from Tokyo - and I have to thank Trek Segafredo: I told them that they shouldn't have brought me because in this beginning of the season I had not obtained good results and instead they insisted, they gave me trust by telling me that there
ANSA.it
Longo Borghini: 'And to think that I shouldn't have been there' - Sport
Women triumph in Roubaix, 'took antibiotics but today I was fine' (ANSA)
Now it's up to the men and the attention in an Italian key will be all on Filippo Ganna, who has never hidden to bet many of his chances on this test, in view of which he has carried out specific training, even on the track in the Montichiari velodrome.
He is also comforted by the fact that he has comrades here, like Van Baarle and Sheffield, who can help launch him, unless they work for the other Ineos point man, former Polish champion Michal Kwiatkowski.
It will be the developments of the race that will determine who this team, considered the strongest, should focus on.
Against Ganna there will be rivals of the caliber of Mathieu Van der Poel, third last year and favorite number one this year, a role he doesn't like because he would like to race without everyone's eyes on him.
This
year he won Flanders and if he succeeds in this other feat, for him 2022 would already be framed.
He will have to beware of Wout Van Aert, whose return to the race was 'slowed down' by the after-effects of Covid but the Belgian is one who performs well on all terrains.
"In training only in the last few days I have been able to do a little more. - says Van Aert -. Unfortunately, what you have lost with inactivity you cannot simply recover. I am a little less ready but it is difficult to say how much, especially when you are used to training 365 days a year and suddenly you have to stop ".
Another aspiring brace is the Slovenian Matej Mohoric, who, however, after winning the Milan-Sanremo may no longer be in top form.
Condition in which, instead, they seem to be Stefan Kung,
Alexander Kristoff and former world champion Mads Pedersen, people who are certainly not afraid of the pitfalls of the so-called 'Northern Hell'.
In short, it is a nice field of participants, which in any case does not prevent Italian fans from dreaming of a fantastic encore after Colbrelli's success in 2021: Ganna will already do the begging
