Former junior Paris-Roubaix champions who raced against Tadej Pogacar: "He didn't stand out at all at the time"
CyclingSunday, 13 April 2025 at 13:48
While for Bram Welten a victory at junior version of Paris-Roubaix in 2015 may have been the highlight of his career, there was a rider back then finishing in 30th place who would ten years later be dubbed as top favorite to win the elite version - Tadej Pogacar. However at the time, the name hadn't even caught Welten's attention.
"I might have been a bit more mature then," he laughs while reminiscing on his junior years in an interview with WielerFlits. Pogacar also couldn't use his strength as much then. "You were only allowed to ride with a maximum of gear 52/14. That made the pace much slower, especially on the cobblestones."
A year later, Pogacar had already moved up in the rankings. He arrived thirteenth in a group that sprinted for seventh place half a minute after winner Jarno Mobach. "I knew him, but he didn't stand out at all at the time. He was a bit my level, although I rode even better that year," the now retired Mobach says.
At the time the attention was on Pogacar's compatriot Jaka Primozic, one of the top juniors in 2016. "He had a Slovenian teammate, Jaka Primozic, who was much more consistent. It really only started for Pogacar from the second year of the U23s. From the moment he won the Tour de l'Avenir in 2018, things suddenly went very quickly for him."
The two are now eagerly awaiting the return of the world champion to the north of France. "It is of course different than with the juniors," laughs Welten. "I have now ridden Paris-Roubaix five times with the pros and the big difference is that the race is held for seventy percent in front of the Forest of Wallers."
"On television and in the media they always say that it only starts after that, but my experience is different. If you come out of the Bos in a good position, you have a big chance of a good result."
And the current Picnic PostNL rider has no doubt that Pogacar will be among them. "I think his chances are very high on Sunday. He won’t like to be in the crowd, so I expect him to start early. We should definitely count him among the potential winners. But they can’t take those triumphs from the past away from us anymore."
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Welten is 28 years old, Tadej 26 years old. The gap of 2 years is a lot among teen, obviously Welten was consistently more mature.
Tadej definitely wasn't terribly out of the ordinary as a junior. Just goes to show what great coaching and a proper "supplement" regiment can turn someone into.
Apart from a few outliers, in athletics, premature developers who held age group records didn’t get very far later and most athletes who became world stars never had early age records, I’d be surprised if in cycling it was any different.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school baseketball team. but there are stories of Tadej racing and winning as a youth. this is a stupid article.
The stories of Tadej were from his local races against older kids, not the same as international level, but as Maria says, at that level a 2 year difference as a teen is enormous, if then you go further and compare a slow and quick developer you’re stretching the physical maturity difference to 3 maybe 4 years.
There is always a defamer...poor people.