"That was the only way for Tadej to win" - Pogacar's right-hand man at Paris-Roubaix tells the team's plan

UAE Team Emirates - XRG had a plan to win Paris-Roubaix and it looked to be well on its way until 120 kilometers to go. Florian Vermeersch details it, as well as the brief moments in which he helped Tadej Pogacar and how he reacted to the victory of Wout Van Aert.

"Up until the moment Tadej got a puncture, it was actually the perfect plan," Vermeersch said in the Vals Plat podcast. UAE had been working hard for the early cobbled sectors, fatiguing the peloton and also reducing it considerably. "Because of that, positioning was already a bit less difficult. You could also feel that there was a bit more fatigue in the peloton. He got a puncture and I had to stay in the group, to play a bit of a watchdog."

Mikkel Bjerg described how the team had no radio contact with the car and that delayed the decision-making with the team. Eventually he, Nils Politt and António Morgado moved back to help the World Champion's comeback to the peloton, but Vermeersch did not. The connection was made right before the Trouée d'Arenberg where he positioned Pogacar near the front.

"Then we could turn up in fourth and sixth place. That was perfect too. Up to five hundred meters from the Forest, it was actually still the perfect scenario, because I had always been among the first eight or nine who rode away."

The most notable incident on the Trouée d'Arenberg was the crash of Mathieu van der Poel. However in the first five-star sector of the race, the Belgian went down, ending his race. "From there, we were going to ride the final part. I won't say what my role in that would have been, but the intention was to make the race as hard as possible. It is a shame that I wasn't there. Tadej automatically had to do even more work as well, so that is a bit of a snowball effect".

It was a nightmare scenario, with the Emirati team's leader fully isolated with over 90 kilometers to go, with the whole team being burned in the space of 30 kilometers due to the mishap. This followed an hour of racing in which everything was going to plan.

"We didn't want to get caught up in the breakaway and we were just going to set a super hard pace right from the first section. There was a change to the course this year, as it included two tricky sections where the wind came from the side and from behind".

UAE were executing their plan well, and ultimately, the idea was to burn through men until the Arenberg where the race would truly explode - but through the actions of Pogacar. The fatigue method, as was the case in the Tour of Flanders, was UAE's path to try and win the French race.

"To get everyone to the Trouée d'Arenberg as tired as possible. In our view, that was the only way for Tadej to win, to make everyone as tired as possible. If a fresh Van der Poel goes into the forest, it becomes very difficult".

However the energy he burned in the chase and the absence of Vermeersch or Nils Politt meant the Slovenian couldn't make the difference later when it mattered the most against Wout Van Aert.

"Initially, of course, I was rooting for Tadej. I find it a pity that he didn't win, but I also begrudge Wout nothing," Vermeersch says of his friend. "We get along well and I am happy for him that he was able to achieve the big goal of his career".