"It would be his greatest performance ever” - Philippe Gilbert speaks on potential Tadej Pogacar victory at Paris-Roubaix 2025

All eyes will be on Tadej Pogacar this Sunday as the world champion makes his senior debut at the 'Hell of the North' - Paris-Roubaix. Only two riders in history have ever won the iconic race on their debut but when it comes to the Slovenian leader of UAE Team Emirates - XRG, no records are safe.

Philippe Gilbert knows exactly what it takes to win on the brutal French cobbles, and according to the Belgian, if Pogacar were to emerge victorious this weekend it would go down as the greatest performance in the illustrious career of the UAE leader, something that is not without serious competition, especially in the last couple of seasons.

“I think he (Pogacar ed.) weighs around 64–65 kilograms right now. His Tour de France weight, when he’s extremely lean, is probably 62 kilograms. So if he manages to battle with the best on this kind of terrain, that would be absolutely incredible," analyses Gilbert in a pre-Paris-Roubaix conversation with Eurosport. "It would be his greatest performance ever.”

There is a school of thought that weight is more important at Paris-Roubaix than arguably any race. Following on from this, some believe Pogacar is simply too light to be able to match the power of the likes of Mathieu van der Poel among others. Gilbert insists though, it's possible for Pogacar to put on some weight especially for this race, whilst still maintaining his usual freshness. “I weighed 72 kilos for Roubaix and 69 for Liège. So there was a 3-kilogram difference,” the Belgian icon recalls of his own experiences. "That’s important. I trained a lot in the gym to strengthen my upper body and build raw power, which really helped me on the flat sections.”

This Sunday, we will find out if Pogacar can take a potentially career-defining win in the velodrome. Let us know your predictions in the comments.