How does Tadej Pogačar win Paris-Roubaix? It’s the million dollar question, one that might linger throughout a career that has already expanded to preposterous proportions but that might always feel incomplete without that cobblestone trophy on his mantlepiece.
The general consensus would dictate that the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider needs to arrive alone in the Roubaix velodrome, but the world champion challenged that assertion as he spoke to the media on the eve of the Hell of the North.
“For sure, anyone would prefer to come solo in Roubaix, but after such a long race, even in a small group, I can pull off some kind of good sprint, if there’s a good moment,” Pogačar said after the teams presentation in Compiègne.
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Unlike the Tour of Flanders, where he has turned the Oude Kwaremont into his own personal runway, the flatlands of the Hell of the North offer comparatively little opportunity to burn rivals off his wheel. Pogačar made a sensational debut in Roubaix last year, the multiple Tour de France winner riding away with two-time winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), who became a three-time winner when Pogačar misjudged a corner and allowed him to solo towards the velodrome.
For all his strength, the prospect of dropping Van der Poel on flat cobbles – very much the Dutchman’s home terrain – remains a tall order. And the prospect of out-sprinting him – or even the likes of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) – an even taller order.
But Pogačar defended his sprint on several occasions, clearly challenging the pre-race narrative that has been building.
“When you go in the sprint after such a long race, there’s so much fatigue from the race before that anything can happen in the sprint,” he insisted.
There is ample evidence to support Pogačar’s theory. Van der Poel famously lost the 2021 Tour of Flanders in a two-up sprint against Kasper Asgreen, a massive shock at the time. It actually happened twice in the same year, as Van der Poel went to the Roubaix velodrome with Sonny Colbrelli and Florian Vermeersch, and finished third.
Pogačar himself has mustered strong sprints towards the end of hard races on a number of occasions, not least last month when he pipped Tom Pidcock – who has outsprinted the likes…
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