French pundit on Tadej Pogacar's Paris-Roubaix debut: "At the 2022 Tour de France, he put on a real show on the cobbled sections"
Cycling
Paris-Roubaix is set to have not only the top classics specialists in the world this year but also the presence of the world's best in Tadej Pogacar who will be making his debut. The rainbow jersey is a good fit with the 'Hell of the North' according to Cyrille Guimard who argued that the decision to race Roubaix had already been in place for a long time.
"It's no surprise. This winter, he was training on the cobblestones; it wasn't just to go string beads while watching Paris-Roubaix on TV. I think the PR is well done since everyone is falling for it. I think the synopsis was written a while ago, and it's perfectly logical that a rider like Pogacar, who has real ability on the cobblestones, would be there," Guimard said in words to Cyclism'Actu.
"At the 2022 Tour de France, he put on a real show on the cobbled sections, even if it didn't translate into big gaps at the finish, but he still scattered everyone. On the Strade Bianche, which is similar to cyclocross and Paris-Roubaix, you still need to have bike handling skills a little above average, and he has them," the Frenchman argues. "He's done cyclocross, he's done mountain biking... in fact, just look at the descents or all the corners; he's never off-track, so Paris-Roubaix fits logically into his calendar. So you could always say there are some concerns... But for me, it's not a surprise; it's completely logical".
Pogacar has won the Tour of Flanders in the past, and this next weekend he will be the main favourite together with defending champion Mathieu van der Poel. However in France, he won't have the climbs to his advantage, and it is a race that often is much more tactical than Flanders where he has the ability to destroy the peloton with one attack.
"At Paris-Roubaix, it's always difficult to predict how the race will unfold, since so many things happen from the moment you get close to the cobblestones, and even more so when you're on them. There are punctures, there are crashes, and repairs don't happen... In short, there are so many things that change strategies. So, you always have to be able to change your strategy, and sometimes even your leader". However UAE will not put too much pressure on the Slovenian, and with the likes of Nils Politt and Florian Vermeersch present, there are several cards to chase a top result.
Guimard believes that as has been the case recently, Pogacar will likely decide to attack Roubaix early so as to avoid then being outplayed by other teams. "Mads Pedersen, he has been bitten by the virus, since in Gent-Wevelgem, he went out more than an hour from the finish... So, who says that the man who will win this year will not simply go out in the Trouée d'Arenberg?"
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- Whatever happens tomorrow... it'll be a hell of a raceslappers6605-04-2025
- Exactly Tadej, the cancer of modern society. Full of good-for-nothing people who gain visibility and importance on social media mocking, humiliating (and worse things) to earn money. But it's the follower's fault, no followers, no "influencers".
maria2024202405-04-2025 - Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025