After his illness, German professional cyclist Nils Politt wants to be back at the front in the spring classic Paris-Roubaix on Easter Sunday.
"I'm hopeful that I'll be in good shape," he told the Rheinische Post. Due to the upcoming presidential elections in France, the one-day race has been postponed by a week. "I feel better from race to race and it suits me that Paris-Roubaix is a little later," said the 28-year-old. He has been struggling with bronchitis several times recently.
Paris-Roubaix is one of the most famous one-day races in cycling and is particularly challenging due to its 30 cobbled sections. "It's a race where you have to be on top of your game mentally," said Politt, who finished second in 2019. "The cobblestone passages cause a lot of crashes, many riders have to deal with flat tyres, the material is put under enormous strain and there are huge forces acting on the body and the bike."
Politt himself has already had some painful experiences at the race, which is also known as the "Hell of the North". "On my first edition, I couldn't hold the handlebars on the last two cobbled sections because of the pain and the blisters started to bleed."
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