There will be a hole in the spring.
Paris-Roubaix is a separate day.
A date checked.
A journey on a violent carpet.
To defend the event, videoconferences were linked between the organizers, the authorities and the authorities.
A real race against time.
The faint hope was maintained until the last moment.
In vain.
The authorities on Thursday indicated their refusal to see Paris-Roubaix start on April 11.
A final verdict.
Paris-Roubaix makes an appointment with its actors the first weekend of October.
In Belgium, a hundred kilometers away, the Tour of Flanders, behind closed doors, will hold its place on Sunday April 4.
Like Milan-San Remo, March 20 (won by Belgian Jasper Stuyven).
Paris-Roubaix, like last year, must let its turn pass.
"Truth below the Pyrenees, error beyond", wrote Pascal.
Messages of support for the secular event have flourished on social networks relayed by politicians or professional runners (such as Florian Sénéchal, a specialist or Pierre Rolland, an assiduous spectator: "One of my favorite races ... to watch in the sofa").
In vain.
During Paris-Nice (March 7-14), the organizers had once again proved their adaptability (as during the last Tour de France), modified the last two stages due to the extension of confinement in the Alps- Maritimes.
But Michel Lalande, the Prefect of the Hauts de France, who had, from March 22, expressed his pessimism about the holding of the test kept the same line.
“We have continued to work every day for ten days, since the statements of the Prefect of the North to France Bleu.
There were additional reconnaissance compared to what usually takes place, reconnaissance on the ground, of all the cobbled sectors, from Troisvilles to Roubaix, with Thierry Gouvenou, the police and the gendarmerie.
A study almost meter by meter to see where the police should have stood to contain the few people who would have been there.
Salvatore Castiglione, the mayor of Wallers, even told me: `` If to maintain Paris-Roubaix we have to go to the extreme of not putting the Trouée d'Arenberg, that would tear my heart out but to save the race, I would accept. ''
I would like to thank him, but all the proposals that could be made did not change anything on the decision that was finally taken not to organize April 11 because of the pandemic situation, ”emphasizes Christian Prudhomme.
Paris-Roubaix has a fallback solution (in 2020, the “Queen of the classics” postponed to October 25 had finally been canceled due to the coronavirus).
For the 118th edition, the organizers will meet on October 3.
“What was important was to find a new date, we cannot imagine that there would not be Paris-Roubaix for two consecutive years.
There is a real pride of the people of Hauts de France to welcome the Queen of Classics, her nickname but which is not just a nickname, it is one of the monuments, if not the monument of the races. of a day.
When I am abroad, like for example in Australia, what happened to me, the only two races are spoken to me is Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France.
It is a race that is so timeless that it still exists, in the 21st century, with incredible strength, and is a source of pride for the people of the region through it.
We take note of the Prefect's decision and with the communities and the International Cycling Union we have found this date of the first weekend of October which suits us best, which will inevitably disturb some other French, Belgian or Italian organizers, we apologize, but we wanted to find a date for Paris-Roubaix, ”says Christian Prudhomme.
And to clarify: “We were planning to do both races on the same day but the women's Tour of Britain, one of the biggest races on the women's calendar, starting on Monday 4, it was impossible to do the women's race ( the very first edition) on 3. We will therefore be over a full weekend, on October 2 for the women's race, on October 3 for the men's event. "
Postponed in autumn, Paris-Roubaix could welcome meteorological conditions that will make the event harder.
Christian Prudhomme slips: “We have been waiting for rain on Paris-Roubaix since 2001 but we had had an absolutely Dantesque day on these cobblestones in 2014. We want, whatever the weather, the masks of mud or dust, male and female , will continue to nourish the legend. "
Read also
Prudhomme: "When the Tour leaves France for a big start, it's anything but anti France"
