Sébastien Hinault: "It's up to us to seize the opportunities”

Pre-race

“I’m excited to race Paris-Roubaix again, it’s a special race on the calendar. This classic is fantastic, it has written great chapters in the history of our sport. Last year was my first participation in this race, in the rain, so it was epic and intense moments to live. This Sunday will be different because the weather is expected to be dry. The cobbles of Roubaix are flat. Arenberg is a “crazy” place, normal people who ride bikes, I think, don’t realise what a whole peloton is going through this cobbled section, so magical is this place, and at the same time out of time and almost “bestial”. I feel good, I hadn’t fully recovered from Flanders to Amstel, and I had caught a bit of a cold. I wasn’t at 100%. I felt better this week and I hope to be in top condition at the start of Paris-Roubaix.  Finishing this race on this velodrome is also a great moment, because when you arrive in this mythical place that has contributed to the legend of this classic, you know that you have done something great, that you are living a special moment of your life”.

“This will be my third participation in Paris-Roubaix. It’s the most mythical race of the year, it’s a French classic of course, but as the border is not very far, a lot of Belgians come to watch this event which is one of the monuments of our sport. It is likely to be a beautiful edition, as the other Flandriennes have been, with the return of the public to the roadsides. The cobbles are different from those in Flanders, because in France they are often also agricultural roads, so the cobbles are worn, some of them are not in very good condition.