"I honestly didn't think Pogacar would come so soon" - Tour de France director excited about Tadej Pogacar's Paris-Roubaix participation

Tadej Pogacar made clear that he'll participate at Paris-Roubaix for the first time this season. With the ambition to win. There are still bigger favourites for the Hell of the North, however the three-time Tour de France champion has already shown that cobbles are not an obstacle for him.

For the director of the Grande Boucle, Christian Prudhomme, it's simply "fantastic to see the last Tour winner at the start" of the monument. It's not every day that a Tour champion turns up to ride the hardest cobbled race on the calendar. The more so a defending champion. In fact, it's something that hasn't happened for thirty years.

Last Tour de France winner to start at Paris-Roubaix would be 2012 champion Bradley Wiggins who finished 9th on that occasion. If Pogacar were to repeat this feat, it would certainly count as a solid debut.

"I honestly didn't think Pogacar would come so soon. When he was training in Arenberg, it was clear that his team's communication was intentional, but I didn't think he'd come now. It's crazy," added the Tour de France director according to Marca.

In this sense, Prudhomme has no doubts about the world champion's performance in Roubaix: "We already saw what he was capable of on the cobblestones in 2022, at the Tour de France on the Arenberg stage. He went with Stuyven and managed to escape. We were happy to have Bradley Wiggins at the start in 2014, after winning the Tour in 2012. Now, we are back on top, as Pogacar will be there to win."

Asked whether he'll be able to finish first at the Roubaix velodrome, the Tour de France boss doesn't dare to guess: "Mathieu van der Poel is still the favorite, of course, but we're going to see an incredible fight, especially because Pogacar is so daring. He's so daring, all the time. We're eagerly awaiting the race."