Andrea Tafi training hard for his dream to race Paris-Roubaix once again

Andrea Tafi, the last Italian to win Paris-Roubaix, continues to train hard to make his dream of returning to the "Hell of the North" come true

Less than three months remain until Paris-Roubaix and Tafi’s plan appears at a dead-end without any professional team willing to sign him.

“In the first week of February I want clarity,” Tafi told Het Nieuwsblad. “I can’t say anything about it yet.”

“This is not a joke, but a real goal,” he said. “I train as hard as I did in my professional years. I hope to appear at the race start.”

The 52-year-old, who retired in 2005, revealed last October his ambitions of returning to the scene of one of the crowning moments of a career in which he won two other Monuments, the Tour of Flanders and the Tour of Lombardy.

“He doesn’t want to say it, but he can’t find a team,” said an Italian journalist. “He doesn’t want to talk. He doesn’t want to say that he will have to race the amateur event.”

“I don’t know, I’m not thinking about the teams’ lack of interest now,” Tafi said. “I’m training every day, five to seven hours. I am going ahead, I don’t want to give up anything."

“I’m calm, I want to continue down my road and live this dream. I have faith in good sense and that we’ll be able to celebrate this 1999 win.”