The Paris-Roubaix returns this Sunday (11:00, Eurosport1 and 2:20 PM Teledeporte) 903 days later due to postponements due to the pandemic which, after the 2019 edition that Gilbert conquered, have led the race to this month of October, when its usual location is on the second Sunday in April. And that has meant that this ‘classic of the classics’ receives the peloton with hellish conditions. The fallen rains and the muddy cobblestone sectors (30 in this edition, 55 km in total of the 257) they presage an epic career in the style of the editions that forged the legend of this French event that, after World War I, was baptized as the Hell of the North.
Since the beginning of this century (2002) such extreme conditions are not remembered. This Saturday the girls already suffered in the historic first women’s edition that the British Elizabeth Deignan (Trek) signed up, a chaotic race full of falls, an aperitif of what can happen today in the male.
And of course, with this outlook, all pools are targeting cyclocross specialists who may have the most expertise to survive this difficult terrain. “A Paris-Roubaix with rain will be fine,” says Mathieu van der Poel in the style of the mythical Sean Kelly, who left his remembered phrase “a Roubaix without rain is not a Roubaix” for history. In the case of the Dutchman, he is confident in his chances to score the second Monument of his career (after the 2020 Tour of Flanders). His arch enemy in the mud, Wout van Aert, is the other top favorite, with the desire for revenge for not having been able to conquer the recent World Cup in Flanders.
As for the rest, the defending champion, Gilbert (Lotto), does not see himself as a contender at 39, while predicting that the race may be “chaos.” Mads Pedersen (Trek), Peter Sagan (Bora), or the always ultra-competitive Deceuninck group (with Sénéchal, Asgreen, Stybar, Lampaert …) they are other serious candidates in a career more unpredictable than ever. Both because of the conditions and because of the fact that it is played far from spring, when there is more knowledge of the state of the classicists. Among them will try to be Iván García Cortina, who after the good level shown in the World Cup is presented as the great asset of Movistar, the only Spanish team. In fact, The Asturian is together with his teammates Imanol Erviti (ninth in 2016) and Lluis Mas the only Spanish participants in this return of cycling to the most extreme Hell of the North.
