The organisers of Paris-Roubaix took a tour of the cobbled sectors of Sunday's course on Monday, and discovered to their surprise that the first section in Troisville was covered in mud and could be too dangerous to use. Thierry Gouvenou said they will wait until later in the week to make a decision whether to keep the sector in the race.
The 257.5km long 2016 Paris-Roubaix route from Compiegne to the Roubaix velodrome was due to have 27 sections of pavé for a total of 52.8 kilometres. Removing Troisville would reduce the sum to 50.6km.
“We’ll wait a few days before taking a definitive decision," Gouvenou said according to AFP. "If we had to race today we’d have to avoid that section. But there is still time, and experience shows that you have to be patient.”
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“The problem is the switch between wet and dry areas, which is very dangerous. The riders pick up speed on the dry patches and can get caught out when they come to wet ones."
Gouvenou and his team toured all of the sectors, and rated them based on length and difficulty. There are three five-star sectors, the highest degree of difficulty: Trouée d’Arenberg (18 - 2.4km at km 162), the Mons-en-Pévèle (10 - 3km at km 209) and Le Carrefour de l’Arbre (4 - 2.1km at km 240.5).
The new uphill stretch, the Capelle-Ruesnes (22 - 1.7km at km. 127) was given a three-star rating, but the remaining sections kept their same ranking as last year, even though sectors 11, 10 and 6 were partially renovated.
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