"I want to focus on the UAE Tour” - Tadej Pogacar dodges questions about Paris-Roubaix involvement
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar sent the cycling world into a frenzy earlier this month when video of the UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader training on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix emerged online. One of the few big races the Slovenian is yet to try and win, the rumour mill was sent into overdrive speculation on Pogacar's potential involvement in 2025.
As of yet, there has been no official confirmation of Pogacar's intention to start Paris-Roubaix this year. In fact, UAE have been keen to put forward the view that Pogacar was simply training on the cobbles for fun and with perhaps one eye on years in the future. Ahead of his season-opening race at the 2025 UAE Tour, Pogacar was understandably asked to comment on his recent trip to the cobbles.
“It was fun," Pogacar says with a wry smile, reflecting on the reconnaissance, but the world champion refuses to give any more insight into his ride, or the motives behind it. "At the moment I want to focus on the UAE Tour.”
As mentioned, this intention within UAE Team Emirates - XRG to quieten talk of Pogacar's potential Paris-Roubaix involvement is not only a tactic of the Slovenian himself. Recently, team boss Mauro Gianetti towed a similar line. "Tadej was in the area because he wanted to recon the Flemish classics with Tim Wellens," said Gianetti. "When Tim mentioned that he would recon Roubaix the next day, Tadej decided to come along for once. They are good friends, that's why. And that's how Tadej is: he felt good and so they filmed it. It was a joke."
Despite these comments, it's unlikely speculation will die out until the day of the race itself. Only then will fans get final confirmation whether or not Pogacar will be riding the 'Hell of the North' in 2025 or not!
Read also
Just in
Play for FREE! Fantasy Tour of Flanders
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- When Roglic beat Geraint Thomas on the last day's TT at the Giro, I remember just how unbelievably emotional his team was. One guy, I forget who, German rider I think, was interviewed and was nearly speechless with a really drawn out "fuuuuuuuuuck it's incredible" comment. And then something even more amazing happened. Geraint Thomas came through the ranks of the Jumbo Visma riders and congratulated them all. True, honest, sincere, sportsmanlike, and celebratory of what had been achieved. Here he was, getting second, and he meant it. And cycling these days is like that, as you say - the way Pogacar hugged Matthews in Quebec, the way Matthews congratulated Pogacar in Montreal, on and on they honor and respect each other. It's pretty great.RidesHills04-04-2025
- Not sure exactly what you are saying, but if you're implying that being heavier is helpful if you're going against the wind or sprinting, then no, it isn't. Ceteris paribus (all else held equal) being a lighter cyclist is always better, save downhill. The reason why heavier cyclists do relatively better than lighter ones on flatter courses is because they will have to have a higher power than the lighter cyclist in order to have any chance at all against them, and flatter courses mean that the lighter cyclist has nowhere to display the better power to weight ratio, meaning that significant ratio is power to CdA, which is usually an advantage to the heavier cyclist.acem8204-04-2025
- Going over bumps is equivalent to going over many small climbs. Lower weight is always a good thing (ceteris paribus) except when going downhill, and even then it's not that advantageous if the downhill is at all technical.acem8204-04-2025
- my formative years in racing were in the 80s and 90s. back then the tone of the peloton was HARSH, aggressive, unfriendly and often mean. amateur racers just modeled what they saw from the pros, so many of the guys a raced with and against were outright a$$hole$, by choice. my great hope is that the amateur ranks now model the tone of kindness and support and compassion that we see in the pro peloton NOW. the greatest stars — tadej, wout, mathieu, demi, kasia, and on and on, never say an unkind word about their brothers and sisters in the peloton, and are often the first even in defeat to hug and congratulate the winner. these are better times in my opinion. maybe some fans miss the “get your hate on” tone of the older days. i do not.OCexile04-04-2025
- That was one of the best interviews. Coming from the best guy in the world Pogi has so much class. Of course he wants to beat MVDP And sees him as the biggest rival. I kind of felt it was a set up to ask Pogi about Wout being a rival. If he was truly honest, he might have said Wout isn’t a threat at this point. Instead, he just laid out the facts and added some opinions that didn’t diminish the respect he ultimately has for Wout or any competitor for that matter even if they aren’t a threat. Pogi is a master at showing sportsmanship. When he loses to MVDP It’s not a big deal and he’s laughing and goofing around and all giddy as if he did win. He just truly loves racing more than he loves winning. Truly a delight to see him on the podium No matter what step he’s on.Onepiece04-04-2025
- The cherry-picked headline makes it sound like MvDP is making an arrogant statement, but reading his statement in full reveals that it's more of a cautious optimism.
KerisVroom04-04-2025 - Pride and overconfidence strike again. Come on Wout! What a bonehead. They had a royal flush in spades and folded the hand. He knows he’s not in his best form after recovering from all the injuries. These are not normal circumstances for a sprint. They should have played tactics and put Powless to the sword by individually attacking thus wearing him out to cover all the attacks. If they wore him out wout MAY have won. It’s sad to see a guy go from insane pride to whimpering dog like that. Yes Wout is under immense pressure, so make some wise and shrewd decisions buddy! Standing there on the podium in 2 or 3 spot he always has the look of a sourpuss sore loser. Show some class buddy! Better success next timeOnepiece04-04-2025
- Well said, Pogi!!!!!!Al04-04-2025
- Why do Ineos want him.? He cannot challenge the big four and they already have a ton of strong domestiquesabstractengineer04-04-2025
- As Wout said on Srava today "Things don't always go your way... but a flat white and peanut butter brownie can make up for a lot" Puts it in perspective!VgnRider04-04-2025