The organizers (Amaury Sport Organization in this case) counted: 903 days elapsed between the last victory of Belgian Philippe Gilbert in 2019 and the following edition. Canceled in 2020 due to Covid-19, Paris-Roubaix finally returns this fall 2021 for a 118th edition.
The legendary event will take place on Sunday October 3, on an unusual date but it was not yet possible to organize it last April. “With the necessary postponements that have been inflicted on it,“ la Pascale ”has never worn its nickname so badly, but luck has placed this year an unprecedented Flandriennes campaign in the heart of autumn, the race for the rainbow jersey. rainbow playing a week before on neighboring land. For its return to the calendar, Paris-Roubaix has offered slight adjustments ”warns ASO in a press release.
The route of this 118th edition was unveiled on Tuesday. The “queen of the classics” will resume its course between Compiègne, a traditional starting town, and the Roubaix velodrome, on a 257.7 km route comprising 55 km of cobblestones divided into 30 sectors. The high places of the Arenberg gap (km 162.4), Mons-en-Pévèle (km 209.1) and the Carrefour de l’Arbre (km 240.5), three sectors ranked highest in the scale of difficulty, appear on the itinerary.
“The first tremors will occur as usual after a hundred kilometers traveled from Compiègne, underlines the organization. But unlike 2019, the Troisvilles sector will be used over its total length of 2.2 km. Known to regulars, Vertain’s will experience an inversion of meaning that will spice up the game, since it will have to be mounted this time. The restless crossing of Cambrésis and southern Valenciennes will also take runners to reunite with the Hameau du Buat sector, discovered in 2005 and which has not been visited since 2016.
Leaving this cobbled path which twists and turns for more than a kilometer, there will be around thirty kilometers left to prepare for the challenge of the Trouée d’Arenberg (km 162.4), where the selection generally takes a radical turn, just like in the other key sectors of Mons-en-Pévèle (km 209.1) and the Carrefour de l’Arbre (km 240.5). “
But the great novelty of this 2021 edition, that of renewal, is the creation of a women’s race which will take place on Saturday October 2: “The start will be given from Denain,” ASO confides in the same press release. Three laps of the circuit in town will immediately give a dynamic tone to the explanation, which will take an even more serious turn when it reaches the town of Hornaing (km 31), where the routes of the two races meet.
There will then remain a little more than 85 km to know at the Roubaix velodrome the outcome of this historic battle, the decisive phases of which will perhaps be played out in the two sectors classified at the highest level of difficulty: Mons-en-Pévèle and the Carrefour de l’Arbre, where the destinies of Roubaisiens were made and undone through the generations. The last 85 kilometers in question will be common to men and women. The entry list for the race is not yet known.
