D-1 : PARIS-ROUBAIX INFOS
April 8 th 2017 - 18:22
TOM BOONEN HONORED WITH WINE AND CHOCOLATE
Former race director Jean-Marie Leblanc and former event ambassador Bernard Hinault joined Christian Prudhomme and Thierry Gouvenou on stage to honor Tom Boonen on the occasion of the teams presentation on the General de Gaulle square in Compiègne. To lead the Quick Step team was the 2014 winner of Paris-Roubaix Niki Terpstra who took selfies all along as he didn't want any moment of the ceremony to go missing. Boonen was offered a vintage bottle of wine for each year of his victories (2005, 2008, 2009, 2012) and pavés-shaped chocolates. “Tom, you are an exceptional champion”, Prudhomme told him. “You have honored your sport. Thank you for the great career you've achieved.” “When I decided that Paris-Roubaix would be my last race, I wasn't really aware of how big it would be but here I am”, Boonen declared. “So far my farewell has kept me super busy and it has taken some pressure off. Paris-Roubaix is the nicest race in the world. It would be incredible to win tomorrow.” The Belgian holds the record of victories along with his compatriot Roger de Vlaeminck who won it for the last time exactly forty years ago. Compiègne has hosted the start of the classic since 1977.
SAGAN AND VAN AVERMAET: A DUEL FOR A FIRST WIN
Four of the 199 starters of the 115th Paris-Roubaix have won the race before, Niki Terpstra (2014), John Degenkolb (2015) and Mathew Hayman (2016) following Tom Boonen on the honor roll, but the two hot favorites, Peter Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet are yet to get their name engraved in the shower room of the velodrome.
“I feel good but I don't know if we can talk about revenge after the Tour of Flanders”, Sagan said in Compiègne. “There was some mistake there but Sagan keeps going! Paris-Roubaix is my last opportunity to win something and get some results from this period of the classics. It's a very important race for me. I expect a good weather for tomorrow, a lot of people to watch, many cobblestones and a very hard race, but the race itself is very hard to predict.”
“I feel good too”, echoed Van Avermaet. “I'm having my best Spring so far. My main goal was the Tour of Flanders and I came second because of a crash, otherwise it might have been a different story. The other big classic is Paris-Roubaix. Like in any race I did this year I'll try to be up there and get a good result. Hopefully it'll be the first position at the end. I've been quite successful so far but I always want to get better. It'll be special also for me to do my last race with Tom Boonen. I'm a big fan of Tom, I hope he wins, but I also have that goal and I will go at it 100%. If he's stronger than me, congratulations, but it will be everybody on his own. The whole Belgium is watching, the whole world is watching and it will be something special. But I will try to do better than him.”
RACE DIRECTOR THIERRY GOUVENOU EXPECTS A FAST RACE UNDER THE SUN
Initially scheduled at 10.55, the start from Compiègne will be delayed until 11.10 as a three quarter tail wind is expected on a dry and very sunny Sunday in the northern France with temperatures around about 20°C. “Such climate conditions usually enable more riders to stay in contention”, race director Thierry Gouvenou explained. “It's harder for the top specialists to get rid of the weaker riders. More riders are motivated when it's dry. They slip and crash less than on wet cobblestones sections but when they crash, they crash harder because the speed is higher. We've obstructed the bike path on the last cobbled section in Hem. It can help attackers who still have resources to ride away. On the other hand, the two new sections from Viesly to Briastre and Briastre to Solesmes [before half way into the race] are too far away to radically impact the racing.” A Paris-Roubaix winner in 2001 and now sport director for Team Sky, Servais Knaven agreed: “There will be a big group in the crucial part of the race. Everything can happen in Paris-Roubaix but I expect a fast race with a lot of attacks from the very beginning.”