Competitors in the 116th Paris-Roubaix -
FRANCOIS LO PRESTI / AFP
Gold pavers not paved stones… This Monday morning, the prefect of Hauts-de-France, Michel Lalande, threw a bomb, or rather a paving stone, on the antenna of our colleagues of France Bleu Nord.
According to him, in view of the galloping spread of the coronavirus epidemic in the region, the question must be asked whether or not the Paris-Roubaix cycling race will be maintained.
The peloton should have launched an assault on the cobbled roads of the legendary Paris-Roubaix in a little over a month, on October 25.
It was already not the usual period since this year, the 118th edition was to leave Compiègne on April 12, in other words in full confinement.
A different context from the Tour de France
Bad luck for the organizers, who stopped the new date without suspecting that it would fall in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic.
It is not the prefect who puts the subject on the table, but when the question is put to him, he answers that the behavior of Paris-Roubaix is uncertain.
“The Tour de France has taken place.
I imagine that health measures are also studied for Paris-Roubaix, ”said the representative of the State.
To be sure, Michel Lalande specifies that he will soon meet the organizers.
It is a question of "seeing, in a context of increased circulation of the virus compared to the Tour de France, what position we take on the Paris-Roubaix", he added.
The race is organized by ASO, which also manages the Tour and the Dauphiné Libéré, among others.
Sport
Coronavirus and Tour de France: “It's a bit freaking out”… The Covid-19, phantom threat above the peloton
Sport
Coronavirus: A team will be excluded from the Tour de France based on two positive (or strongly symptomatic) cases
Cycling
Coronavirus
Sport
Paris-roubaix
Lille
Cycling