The stones count. And maybe that’s why Tadej Pogacar, After so much thinking, he said yes to Roubaix. The stones count and the Slovenian champion has not been able to resist the charm of a challenge that those who run by bike cannot fail to run. A choice of heart that many would probably not have liked because for a sample that can win everything, which can reveal the tour, the classics, which has sponsors, engagements and many other commitments to be honored, running on the stones is a risk of too much. But the stones count and then Tadej in the end lied to his passion, to the enthusiasm of his 26 years, to the desire to pedal in a race that remains a piece of history, to the desire to fill all the boxes of the great races that has not yet won. And Roubaix seems almost waiting for it.
So on Sunday 13 April we will be to make the eyes to be polished Because the company will be among others, obviously Mathieu Van der Poel, obviously our Filippo Ganna and Jonathan Milan, obviously Wout Van Aert but also runners of the caliber of Jasper PhilSen, Matej Mohoric, Mads Pedersen, Tim Merlier, Arnaud de Lie all perfectly able to enter the Velodrome to play it. The stones also count for them. They count for everyone. Over 260 kilometers of Masselli and asphalt, from Compiègne, to the North-North-East of Paris, at the Roubaix velodrome. One stone after the other, he whispered, wet, that is, donkey back, that is, taller and disconnected in the middle to slide on the sides and disappear at the edges where you can often pedal but not always, because between the public and barn the space is not there and the risk of hooking to something or someone is too high.
One stone after another, more distant than close, sometimes with grass in the middle that makes everything even more complicated so much so that, Les amis de Paris-Roubaix, The association of volunteers who deals with the maintenance of the 29 Pavé sectors, in recent months has “assumed” a flock of goats that the grass has practically swept away better than a mash. But the distance between one cube and the other remains so much so that if you make a mistake to put a wheel and you end up in the middle you don’t get out of it anymore, the bike is gripped, it goes where it wants and it no longer needs to try to cling to the levers of the brakes, because the hands tremble, the arms as well and every gesture, even the simplest like stopping, becomes useless. It seems trivial but, while trying to understand where to put the wheels, continue to ask you and repeat how you can finish a race like this, how you can resist, try it, even just think about it.
Paris-Roubaix: who did it explains that to stay in balance, In order not to go crazy, in order not to fall you have to have the courage to go strong, you have to pull on the pedals instead of pushing because the bike tends to get up as if it were an hydrofoil and you have to be lucky enough not to pierce. “If you don’t fall and not holes you are suitable for the pavè …” the legendary DS told his boys a few years ago Giancarlo Ferretti. An “iron sergeant” that had no half measures because on the route of the Roubaix the half measures do not exist. Either inside or outside, or in front in the first fifties at the entrance of the arenberg or goodbye dreams of glory. However it goes from Compiègne to the Velodrome is an elimination challenge. Few remain. There are those who have a “bestial” physique, better if powerful, preferably, pretty, preferably a little heavy and the story of those who have won in these parts. But this year there is also Tadej Pogacar and the story, another story, will try to write it …