The Paris-Roubaix, a cycling race considered as the “queen of the classics”, has been postponed from April 11 to October 3 due to the health situation, announced Thursday 1er April, theInternational Cycling Union (UCI). The day before, October 2, the race for female athletes will take place.
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“Paris-Roubaix is one of the monuments of the UCI world calendar (…). This is why it was essential to find an appropriate postponement date for all, and in accordance with the status of this legendary event that runners and enthusiasts greatly appreciate ”, commented David Lappartient, President of the UCI.
“We are happy to announce that the ‘queen of classics’ will return in 2021 and that the competitors of the very first women’s edition will be able to discover her legendary route”, also specified Christian Prudhomme, director of cycling at Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) and patron of the Tour de France.
The prefect of Hauts-de-France had already hinted last week that the race could be postponed. Last year, Paris-Roubaix had already been postponed to the fall and then finally canceled, for the same reason of health situation.
In the 2021 cycling calendar, Paris-Roubaix is the only one of the five “Monuments” of the season to be postponed. The first, Milan-San Remo, took place on March 20 although the start was given in the heart of the Lombard capital classified as a “red zone”. The second, the Tour of Flanders, remains scheduled for Sunday between Antwerp and Oudenaarde, like the other Belgian classics which have been organized so far behind closed doors.
Since the first edition at the end of the XIXe century, only the two world wars had hitherto been right in Paris-Roubaix, between 1915 and 1918, then between 1940 and 1942.