Paris-Roubaix: Lampaert and Vanmarcke hope to make it difficult for the favorites

Yves Lampaert also hopes for this, just like his Soudal-Quick.Step team, which has not yet had the best spring. “I expect a very open course,” says Lampaert. “I think other teams are also striving for the same. I’m thinking of Jumbo and Alpecin. It is to be hoped that those two teams will soon have to eat up a few men in the run-up to the final. We are going to adjust our tactics. In previous years we always took the race in my hands. Not now. We’re going to do it like in the Tour of Flanders. This Paris-Roubaix is ​​a race that suits me best of all. I’ve already ridden the final a few times. It makes me dream of more. I love riding over cobblestones.”

“Moreover, you have to ride tactically. Paris-Roubaix is ​​a combination of several factors. It is not always the strongest rider who wins. You can control this race but you don’t have to wait until the last cobblestone section to ride off the favourites. Are we behind the facts this season? We are not the only ones, I think? We may be missing an absolute leader to hurt the others. “

Of course you also have to have the legs to feel the course. Sep Vanmarcke is already feeling in his element on the cobblestones. His chances are a lot bigger here than in Flanders. But the cobblestones are treacherous, with a lot of mud and water. Dirk Demol: “De Ronde is a lot more explosive. Then you have parts where it goes down, and you can recover. You have to keep going here, and that suits Sep much more. He is in shape, he has that in recent weeks proven. I think so, his results don’t lie. Sixth in Nokere, tenth in the Omloop, third in Wevelgem, in the Ronde he was twenty-fourth. But ok, the explosive may not have been there, but I’m confident for Sunday in that he can interfere.”