Will there be a 2021 edition of Paris-Roubaix?
Nothing obvious, to believe the prefect of Hauts-de-France Michel Lalande, questioned Monday morning on the antenna of France Bleu Nord on the subject of the maintenance or not of the cycling race, scheduled for Sunday April 11.
"I'll give you an answer when the time is right, but you can guess it," he said, then referring to "a less blue sky" to a question about his optimism about the possibility of seeing the runners set off. on the cobblestones of the classic.
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For now, the major races of the season have managed to juggle health constraints to compete.
The confinement put in place on the Côte-d'Azur, however, forced the organizers of Paris-Nice to review the route of the last two stages to avoid going through the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes.
In Belgium, the spring classics take place, but behind closed doors.
"It will be necessary to explain to me the coherence with the barrier gestures"
"It will be necessary to explain to me the coherence with the barrier gestures and all the rest", explained Michel Lalande, questioned on the maintenance of the races on the other side of the border.
Last year, this prefect demanded the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the race, initially postponed from April to October.
And Hauts-de France have been part of the reconfigured areas since midnight Friday due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
For its part, the International Cycling Union specified that it had received, all classes of events combined, 70 requests for postponement of events and had recorded the cancellation by their organizers of 60 races, "due to the restrictions imposed by the authorities. competent ”.
“The road season, which should have ended on October 19, has been extended until October 31.
This extension offers an additional margin in the perspective of other postponements of events this year, ”added the international federation.
