“It’s a completely different race, but I will accept the challenge" - Tadej Pogacar casts eye towards Paris-Roubaix debut after stunning Tour of Flanders success
Cycling
After his blip at Milano-Sanremo last time out, Tadej Pogacar has emphatically returned to his position of man to beat in the World Tour peloton, soloing to an incredible win at the 2025 Tour of Flanders on Sunday afternoon in Belgium. With next weekend posing a challenge unlike the Slovenian has ever embarked on before though, can he also take victory on the iconic French cobbles?
Next weekend in France, it's likely to be chapter 3 of the epic Pogacar - Mathieu van der Poel rivalry this Monument season. After the latter's win at Milano-Sanremo and Pogacar's success in Flanders, the scales are delicately poised. Given that Van der Poel has taken Paris-Roubaix victory on each of the last two years though, it's likely the Dutchman who will take to the startline as the pre-race favourite.
“It’s a completely different race, but I will accept the challenge and try to do my best,” Pogacar said of the 'Hell of the North' when speaking to the media immediately following his Tour of Flanders success. “This Flanders suits me a bit better but you never know. Roubaix is also a very hard race and I think with this shape that I have now, I should give it a try.”
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Tadej Pogacar wins the Tour of Flanders AGAIN! 👏👏👏
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) April 6, 2025
🌈 The rainbow jersey cruises to a solo victory in the final race of the Belgium classics. #RVV pic.twitter.com/RDaHRyP7ds
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- 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.Veganpotter12-04-2025
- Nice one. Not 100% officially a placebo but in my early days of group training in Mallorca I and another guy were reputed to ride without food (and once I paid the price for it having to be pushed back to base). On one particularly long outing things started getting difficult and the other guy mentioned he could really do with something to eat, one of the jokers offered him a home-wrapped snack, the latest nutritional supplement on the market and he started flying, showing and boasting all the way home how good he was feeling. At dinner, in front of 40 or so of his mates it was then revealed it had simply been a premeditated prank with a cheap doggy biscuit. Don’t know if anyone later ever considered experimenting with dogfood doping, was just happy not to have been selected as the victim.Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Veganpotter, I’d take that as a compliment, like not knowing how to manufacture a bomb :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Most of us really overlook the reality of what happens physically when a bike tire goes over cobbles, we are too focused on experience, feeling and intuition to actually look at what should be a microscopic slow-motion analysis. I think it would help many to better imagine what is happening by comparing the situation to differing boat types advancing on wavy waters. You start with typical boats and play around with wave height and amplitude and then you progress onto more advanced designs, motorboats, catamarans, hovercraft, jetskis, gliders on different types of waves. Nce you can eliminate most of the wave and just skim the tops, the wave topography reduces to something minimal, this is the grail of bike design for cobbles, tough because no cobbled sector has exactly the same pattern. Does anyone know if wheel size is UCI regulated or is there a margin?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Alsene, I tend to agree but it’s incredibly complicated to calculate who has what advantage in which particular situation as the variables are largely interrelated. As you note, the rolling resistance alone is affected by numerous criteria, all things equal it is easy to change one variable to determine whether the heavier or lighter rider has an advantage, however, when EVERY rider is free to play with ALL variables (tire pressure, bike stiffness, wheel seperation and dozens more), many of the advantages/disadvantages melt into a smaller overall a/d much harder to determine when there is not an enormous weight difference (we have riders from mid 50 - mid 90kg but most are much closer together). In the meantime each team has optimised the set-up for each rider so differences are nowhere near what they used to be 30-40 years ago but obviously there is and always will be some but without highly advanced scientific research (which no-one is likely to provide for free and investing teams will keep for themselves) I feel there is now little point in people like us trying to make any factor or point the determining one, none will ever outweigh the gains from drafting and strategy :-)Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Firstly, it’s not them, it’s their doctors and consultants and people contacting them trying to sell their wares. Secondly, now that there’s money in the sport, they can afford it, and peddlers see lucrative opportunities to separate them from their earnings, not very complicated to follow, in fact, wasn’t the whole modern thing started by someone having access to an oversized sponsor budget as there was a good marketing alignment of nationalistic and feelgood stories?Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- Yeah, let’s just discuss important matters while the world goes to bits ;-) Enjoy your entertainment but stay responsible!Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- There are the Enhanced Olympics for that, funnily enough, no matter how much money is being promised, it doesn’t seem to be attracting many athletes except a few almost has-beens. In any case, all those in favour should be consuming too, with a disclaimer they won’t seek medical help once things go awry.Mistermaumau12-04-2025
- You have a very limited understanding of physiology if you think PEDs don't work. Some absolutely work better than others but not many will benefit you the moment you take it...methamphetamines being one of the PEDs the can help you right when you take them.Veganpotter12-04-2025
- Them not winning definitely doesn't mean they're not on the sauce too. They certainly are.Veganpotter12-04-2025