Paris (AFP)
The outfit of the "queen of classic" cyclists, Paris-Roubaix, scheduled for April 11, is subject to the prefectural decision which remains to be taken in view of the health situation.
"The decision is not definitively taken but it is a department where there is a real health problem", confirmed Thursday morning on France Info the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu.
"Perhaps this event will have to be postponed", added the minister, three days after the statements of the prefect of Hauts-de-France Michel Lalande suggesting that the race was likely to be postponed again.
"The prefect has assumed his responsibilities, we are still discussing with him," said Roxana Maracineanu without giving a date for the upcoming decision.
For its part, ASO (Amaury Sport Organization), which organizes Paris-Roubaix like most of the major French cycling races (Tour de France, Paris-Nice, etc.), has not reacted.
But its technical teams went this week to the race course, one of the five "monuments" of the cycling season.
Another "monument" which usually attracts a large audience, the Tour of Flanders remains scheduled in Belgium on April 4.
Strict measures have been enacted to keep the public away and enforce the + bubble + race.
Most of the major cycling races have so far been held in 2021 despite covid-19.
Whether in France, with Paris-Nice, whose route for the last two stages had to be changed, however, due to the confinement in Nice and its surroundings, in Belgium or in Italy, with Milan-Sanremo although the start was given to the heart of Milan in an area classified as red by the Italian authorities.
Last year, Paris-Roubaix was postponed from spring to autumn and finally canceled due to the pandemic, both the men's race created in 1896 and the women's version which was to take place for the first time.
© 2021 AFP