The third monument cycling season After Matej Mohoric won the Milan-San Remo and Van der Poel signed up for the Tour of Flanders, the Paris-Roubaix promises strong emotions for this Easter Sunday with a duel between the aforementioned Mathieu and Wout van Aert, who returns after being off for two weeks due to a positive for Covid-19. The two most spectacular cyclists in the peloton have never won at the Roubaix velodrome and they want to start their account this season in a duel that will put them at the limit of their strength.
The Paris-Roubaix is made up of 30 cobblestone sectors that will make that of the 257 kilometers that are traveled 55 are on a cobbled and irregular asphalt. Despite not having a single hill on the entire route, the complexity of riding on such complex and difficult terrain will make the difference with the most powerful and skilled cyclist taking the cat to water. It will be in this battle when Van der Poel and Van Aert can catch up in a season where they have only met in one race, the Milan-San Remo, which fell on the side of the first with a third place by an eighth of the Jumbo cyclist -Visma.
In this race, it seems that the lack of rhythm of Van Aert after spending two weeks without competing can be decisive. The Belgian champion signed a seventh place last season and his quota has suffered until his victory fell to [7.00]. For its part, Van der Poel -third last year- is the big favorite quoting to [4.20]although we must not lose sight of the second favorite, the former world champion Mads Pedersen, who is presented as the odds winner [4.50].
The absence of the winner of last season Sonny Colbrelli is not key in a race where a winner is rarely repeated. With Van der Poel and Van Aert, hegemony may begin, but Paris-Roubaix has not seen anyone repeat since 2009 when Tom Boonen achieved it. This fact speaks of the complexity of a test where usually the strongest does not win, but the smartest and the least unnecessarily exposed to the wind. In addition, you will have to be attentive to the weather because if it rains the road can become a skating rink.
Spanish cycling will only have five representatives -and the five in the ranks of Movistar- to attempt an impossible feat for ours. In 119 years of history, a Spanish cyclist has never won the race, although Juan Antonio Flecha was filming it a decade and a half ago. In this edition, Iván García Cortina will try to do a good job, although the Spanish cyclist with the best result of those on the starting line is Imanol Erviti who was ninth in 2016.