Tadej Pogacar considers "impossible almost" to drop van der Poel and van Aert in World Championships climbs

The World Championships are going to be a thrilling race this Sunday with the men's Elite road race, with several of the contenders talking about their options in an highly anticipated race. Tadej Pogacar has talked to reporters in a press conference ahead of the race, more specifically

“If you are talking about Wout van Aert, Van der Poel, those guys you don’t just drop on this parcours," Pogacar said, perhaps in a surprising tone. "It’s just impossible almost, but you can make them tired. But you also get tired after 267km. It’s not a lunch ride but it’s a really really tough day for everybody.”

There will be over 4000 meters of climbing in the race, however mostly focused on the hilltop of Mount Pleasant that will be ridden on several occasions in the final circuit. It will feature just over a kilometer with 8% average gradient however, it won't be a long ascent where the Slovenian can drop his rivals such as he usually does in the mountains.

Without the likes of Primoz Roglic and Matej Mohoric, options are also limited for Slovenia, who will count on Jan Tratnik as the main support for the UAE Team Emirates rider, but more so likely in an attempt to make the race more difficult for the fast men. “I’m really motivated. I can not wait. It’s interesting parcours. We need to do something because I think those teams will try and play it more safe and calm but we don’t have a full team," he added. 

"So we will see how the riders that are in our team feel and we will decide together how we play it on Sunday. I think we have good riders, there is only six, but with six riders you can do a lot … We will see," he concluded.