It will be the debut of
Tadej Pogacar at the Tour des Flandres, but a lot of attention will be on him as the Slovenian comes in with great form and will take advantage of some important absences such as that of Wout van Aert. Together with
Matteo Trentin, Pogacar will be leading
UAE Team Emirates in a race that is not so familiar to him, but where he's shown to be capable of performing.
“I would not give myself four stars for Sunday. But if I do everything perfect, then I can be at the front. For sure, the shape is good. I had an idea of how it would look and it was like this: it was nervous, hectic, with some crashes, left and right, fighting for positions, sprinting up the small climbs," Pogacar said in a pre-race interview with the media.
"Yeah, it was more or less like I thought it would be, but it was still a bit of a shock for the body and the mind on Wednesday. You need to be in position all the time," he added.
It has snowed a lot in Flandres these past few days, although it's unlikely that this will affect the race. With the forecast below 10 degrees all day long and over 270 kilometers on the menu, it will still be a very tough day for everyone in the peloton: “The long distance is a plus for me, I think. With the short climbs, it’s really tricky and nervous, but I think the distance will help me a little bit, and the cold weather also.”
“I don’t want to be caught behind or not in position when the race goes," he concluded. At Dwars door Vlaanderen he seemed to have the legs to be in the winning move, but missed the timing aspect. Whether he can improve on that or not tomorrow remains to be seen, but some experience has been taken from it.
UAE Team Emirates for Tour des Flandres: Tadej Pogacar, Matteo Trentin,
Felix Gross,
Alexys Brunel,
Vegard Stake Laengen, Rui Oliveira and
Oliviero Troia.
