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Paris-Roubaix safety concerns as tacks found on the courseParis-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift 2023 (© Zac WiLLIAMS SWpix.com)

Paris-Roubaix safety concerns as tacks found on the course

Elsewhere on the route, French political tensions were spotted in the form of some far from complimentary graffiti about Emmanuel Macron
by Dan Alexander
Sun, Apr 09, 2023 10:53
2

Tacks have been found spread on the Paris-Roubaix route just hours before the men's peloton will take to the cobbles for the third Monument of the season.

Dutch cycling journalist and commentator José Been was out on the bike this morning, riding the course ahead of the race, and shared a photo of the tacks found on the road.

While it remains unclear who spread them, they could easily cause a puncture, a presumably targeted attack at sabotaging the race that raises safety concerns.

> Mathieu van der Poel wins fastest ever Paris-Roubaix after Wout van Aert puncture drama

Last July, fans on the Col d'Aubisque found tacks near the summit ahead of the next day's Tour de France stage, while in 2012 a number of riders including a yellow jersey-wearing Bradley Wiggins suffered punctures due to tacks being spread across the road on the Mur de Péguère.

Ahead of last year's RideLondon sportive one rider reported to road.cc that they had suffered a puncture on the route, subsequently spotting a tack in their tyre and many more on the road.

There have also been countless other UK examples of non-professional cyclists being targeted with nails or similar objects spread on popular cycle lanes or routes.

> "Hundreds of pins" strewn across Essex cycle lane in bank holiday sabotage

Elsewhere on the Roubaix course this morning, anti-Macron graffiti was spotted spraypainted on the road at the entrance to a pavé sector. Protests at Macron's plans to raise France's retirement age saw a famous Parisian bistro frequented by the president set on fire earlier this week.

The picture comes from the four-star Tilloy à Sars-et-Rosières sector around 70km from the finish and while some suggested the 'FDP' could simply be celebrating the nation's president as a 'fan of pavé', the acronym has a somewhat less complimentary meaning in France.

> Alison Jackson sprints to career-defining win at chaotic Paris-Roubaix, after huge race-altering crash takes down nearly all of the favourites

It remains to be seen if the 'artwork' will still be in place by the time the race passes.

It's not all political tension and anti-social puncture threats however...

Paris-Roubaix
2023 Paris-Roubaix
Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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2 comments

Avatar
Awavey | 1 year ago
1 like

do two tacks really make for a spring monument protest ?

maybe continental roads are different to UK ones, but Id say finding something like that roadside is just pretty much par for the course.

if there were a handful of shiny looking new ones, might be different of course.

Avatar
ChuckSneed | 1 year ago
1 like

I thought all this tubeless gimmick was supposed to mean that wasn't a problem. Clearly I have been misinformed...

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