Christophe Laporte and Florian Sénéchal were victims of punctures in Paris-Roubaix. The two best French chances, out of only 13 French registered at the start, had just been dragged into limbo.
It will still be necessary to wait to find a successor to Frédéric Guesdon, winner in 1997, Twenty-six years ago. The race was won by Mathieu van der Poel of the Jumbo-Visma team.