Paris (AFP)
Paris-Roubaix on another date? The magic will work even if the "queen of the classics", which should have taken place on Sunday if the virus had not quarantined it, is organized at the end of the season, believes Marc Madiot.
Double winner of the event in 1985 and 1991, the Mayennais who heads the Groupama-FDJ team is deprived of his favorite race this spring. Dust which would have accompanied the race in this sunny period, adrenaline which seized all the participants, excitement which culminated throughout the day until the apotheosis of the arrival at the end of the six hours of race.
"The Roubaix velodrome is sad to die in ordinary times. But, on the day of the race, it becomes magic", explains to AFP Marc Madiot, who joined the site alone with each of his victories. "It's the same thing for the arrival of Milan-Sanremo on Via Roma, which is usually a commonplace street. It is not for nothing that these are monuments, immutable races".
Immutable? This year at least, the date changes since the general will, from the international federation (UCI) to the organizers (ASO), is to find a place for the "monuments" in the calendar which must be redone for the end of the crisis. No doubt in September or October.
"The context will change, the atmosphere too and the equation will be new for the runners", analyzes Madiot. "But I have no concerns about its success: the magic will continue to operate."
- "These are the trenches" -
"Roubaix is not a race in bicycle standards, it is not calibrated in computers", he celebrated in his biography "Parlons vélo". "You cannot start on this race while being blue flower. (...) It is special, timeless. It is with a knife that it happens, it is the arena, it is the trenches, it's melee. "
Today, the current president of the National Cycling League, which has an area paved with his name before Orchies, believes: "The cards will be redistributed. We are going to get out of a routine that the armed teams master for this race, with known benchmarks, the races preceding Paris-Roubaix, the pressure build-up. It will be different. "
The weather factor remains by definition random, even if the last editions of the race formerly nicknamed "la Pascale" (an appellation that would have been justified this year) took place in good weather. To find a trace of a Paris-Roubaix of rain and mud, a cliche which takes part in the legend of the test, it is necessary to go back to ... 2002.
For the other elements, uncertainty is also required. "For the first time, the runners will undoubtedly have a big lap in their legs before showing up at the start," notes Madiot. With what consequences, especially if the rise is made through other races?
"I am very curious to observe all of this, it will be interesting to see how the runners will take up the challenge", savored the Frenchman, aware that the least well-off teams could take advantage of this upheaval.
For the "Mr. Paris-Roubaix French", tied with Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle also twice winner in 1992 and 1993, a cancellation is not desirable, on the contrary: "When the sport will resume, we will have we need big events. We all have appetites! "
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