Mathieu van der Poel does not underestimate Tadej Pogacar anywhere: "He would be one of the favourites in Roubaix if he went"

Mathieu van der Poel is now a two-time consecutive winner of Paris-Roubaix and this spring he should be amongst the main favourites once again, alongside Wout van Aert and several other very talented riders. Tadej Pogacar could change his mind, but for the time being shouldn't be in the 'Hell of the North'. But when he does, the Dutchman has no doubts he can win it.

"He will for sure try it once. Maybe not next year but for sure I think he will try to win it at some point," van der Poel told CyclingWeekly. "He already showed in the Tour stage we did on the cobbles once that he was really strong so I don’t think it would be a surprise to anyone. He would be one of the favourites in Roubaix if he went."

Van der Poel, currently in Spain preparing for the start of his cyclocross season, is a rider that cannot match the World Champion in most terrains but in the flat cobbled races he can, and has more palmarès. Van der Poel thrived this spring, winning both cobbled monuments, and has managed to race them without the Slovenian's presence. Next year in Flanders that will not be the case, and van der Poel is certain that Pogacar would be a win contender in Roubaix as well.

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"Tadej is quite special, of course. Although if you see the Monuments it’s often the same winners, only Sanremo is a bit more diverse. But it is definitely not easy to win these sorts of races," van der Poel says. However in a race often dictated by luck and tactics, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider has often made the single best decisions over 2023 and 2024 to win the brutal race on both occasions.

A lot of van der Poel's success and consistency over the past two seasons has been the lack of injuries and illnesses. A lot of that is owed to him moving to Spain, where not only as he managed to better secure his health, but also significantly improve his training throughout the winter.

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"I used to be much more on Zwift but I spend a lot of time in Spain now. During the winter when I’m in Belgium I’m riding almost every day on Zwift to be honest," he tells. "I prefer to jump on that than to go out in the bad weather and especially with cyclocross it is a nice combination".

In Spain, he can structure things differently and do what he wants, rather than what the weather allows him too. "You can do cyclocross training in the afternoon and then an hour on there and it is a nice combination. But down here in Spain you don’t need it often," he concluded.

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