Just a ride for fun? Pogacar's Paris-Roubaix recon was 165 kilometers long and included all cobbled sectors team DS tells

UAE Team Emirates - XRG will not publicly say that Tadej Pogacar will ride Paris-Roubaix this year but almost all signs point towards it. He recently did a recon ride throughout the north of France and the team DS that rode with him and Tim Wellens reveals that the ride was a full recon of the 2025 route.

"This weekend in the North was already planned since December, at the team's training camp in Spain. Tim Wellens was also there, while Antonio Morgado and Nill Politt could not accompany us due to physical problems," Fabio Baldato shared with Gazzetta dello Sport.

Nevertheless the trip was made. On Saturday Pogacar and Tim Wellens explored the route of the Tour of Flanders and in Sunday they rode the route of Paris-Roubaix. This wasn't anticipated, and perhaps only made public as they were spotted on Sunday afternoon on French soil. The fact that only two riders rode this recon is a very big point towards the World Champion's potential ambitions to race it later this spring.

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Pogacar will race the UAE Tour and then his spring will consist of nothing but one-day races. Amongst these are Milano-Sanremo and Tour of Flanders, but also the Ardennes classics. There would be worries about the risk of a big crash of injury in Roubaix, but simultaneously Pogacar has proven to be a great bike handler and a rider who is capable of winning on every single terrain.

Joxean Matxin told journalist Daniel Benson that the race continues to be off his schedule, but we can quickly remember Wout van Aert's case with the cyclocross World Championships - where the Belgian was not publicly announced to ride it until a week before, and he was given the freedom to make the decision whenever he wanted. This allowed him to not have the pressure and media attention that would otherwise put higher pressure and expectations on his shoulders.

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"Sunday in Roubaix was another intense training session, about 165 km. We entered the course two kilometers before the first cobblestone section and covered all the cobblestones, including the 'five stars' such as Mons-en-Pévèle or Carrefour de l'Arbre, and also the small modifications before Arenberg," Baldato explained.

"We got as far as the velodrome in Roubaix, but it was closed and we couldn't get in. Tadej was lively, as always. He had a lot of fun. He is a total cyclist, but someone with his characteristics had never seen him ride so hard on the stones."

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VIDEO | Tadej Pogacar confirmed to have explored Paris-Roubaix course and Trouée d'Arenberg

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