"Tadej can win everything" - António Morgado on Pogacar's Roubaix chances and support role in Flanders
Cycling
António Morgado was once again in the spotlight at the Tour of Flanders, but this time in a different way to last year, when he surprised everyone by finishing in 5th place, the best result by a Portuguese cyclist in the Flemish race's history. In the 2025 edition, the 21-year-old finished in a distant 90th place, but that in no way reflects the race he rode, as he played a key support role for a Tadej Pogacar that needed the team badly against his stacked rivals.
The 'flying moustache' had to be called into service earlier than scheduled, as Tim Wellens and Jhonathan Narvaéz were involved in two crashes and didn't get to work at the front of the peloton, specially when Visma, Alpecin and Lidl-Trek all had men in front when the race opened up tactically.
Morgado, alongside Florian Vermeersch, Mikkel Bjerg and Nils Politt - the latter two he joined on the Top5 last year - would be essential in UAE Team Emirates - XRG's plan to control the gap to the group of Küng, Benoot and Ganna, before Tadej Pogacar's first attack, 58km from the finish line.
Speaking to Portuguese Cycling Magazine, Morgado said: "It was a good day, a positive day. The plan went well and so we're happy," with his usual straight face. "The plan was not to let the main favorites get ahead and at the Oude Kvaremont we launched Tadej's attack." Sure enough, it seems like the plan worked, of course very much because the World Champion was undoubtedly the strongest on the day.
As for the next races, Morgado reinstated that he will be racing Paris-Roubaix for the second time in his career, again joining the Slovenian in search of a monument: "I'm going to do Paris-Roubaix, where I'll have a similar mission to the Tour of Flanders." Asked about the possibility of teammate Tadej Pogacar winning the 'Hell of the North', the Portuguese was clear: "Tadej can win anything, so I hope so."
🎙️🇵🇹 EXCLUSIVO: Declarações de António Morgado após a Volta à Flandres!
— Portuguese Cycling Magazine (@PCMPTMag) April 6, 2025
O ciclista da UAE Team Emirates-XRG foi fundamental no controlo da corrida para o vencedor Tadej Pogačar
Depois do histórico 5º lugar do ano passado, obteve um 90º lugar que traz muita experiência. pic.twitter.com/9MS7eyHSpA
Just in
Play for FREE! Fantasy Paris-Roubaix
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- It was still an incredible debute and winning this race is very much possible for Pogi if gives it a few more years experience. I was wondering if he didn't get good intel from the car and seemed to be trying to attack round the corner or at least apply pressure which it was just not the right place. Maybe the bikes played a part in why he didn't realise himself but I do feel given his stature and being the first ever Paris Roubaix for Poggi, if he needed more support from those around him in knowing the corners that you simply can't take like normal. I remember a gravel lane I took too hard once and it was a gentle turn but if you try to take hard it will throw you. Seems it was pretty common knowledge now for the others in the event but I didn't know and it ended up bloody and bruised all because I wasn't aware of this corner where the normal rules don't apply. I'd suspect similar myself.HoopoeChai14-04-2025
- That's how the finish line camera works
KerisVroom14-04-2025 - What a great Paris Roubaix! Having the best competition always elevates the race.awp14-04-2025
- I love Andrie’s fierce loyalty and dedication to his sonmij14-04-2025
- obviously loads to say about mathieu and tadej, who are now pretty clearly the towering giants of this generation. but i also kept thinking about how, over such a short period of time, Alpecin has become just a staggeringly dominant classics team, and it’s not just the one man show of mvdp. watching jasper phillipsen turn himself inside out to take pressure off mathieu, even for a short while, at a critical stage of the race shows the tremendous unity of this team. winning BOTH milano san remo AND roubaix THREE YEARS IN A ROW?! Damn…OCexile14-04-2025
- Special effects on the spokes?Mistermaumau13-04-2025
- It was definitely exciting but not the greatest race in my opinion. Mechanicals had a lot to do with the result and the race was basically decided by a crash. It was a weird start with not that much drive and fight to form the breakaway and team tactics and moves were pretty weak or non-existent at all.heinz13-04-2025
- So, in the end Martin got real time on the line and actually drop a place in the GC. the spirit of the 3km rule is to save riders that are afected by crashes or mechanicals when these events are not their fault. Some cases where the rider is to "blame" are, for pragmatical reasons, i guess, also covered by the rule. But when you are on the attack in a rolling terrain and you crash, alone, it doesn't make much sense to apply the rule, even if you are in the last km. It's completely different from the situation where there's a big crash in the bunch in the last kms and you get stuck behind fallen riders, for example.heinz13-04-2025
- Those motorbike riders were pretty good at taking that corner, probably fooled him into thinking it couldn’t be so difficult, notice how in comparison, MVDP looks like his bike had ABS. Tadej was close to staying on the bike but he kept hold of his front brake trying to come to a complete standstill, had he eased the pressure to let the wheel roll on a little he’d not have gone over.Mistermaumau13-04-2025
- Always classy towards his rivalsMistermaumau13-04-2025