"When I started the sprint my legs were just like spaghetti" - Tadej Pogacar accepts second defeat in Roubaix

Tadej Pogacar experienced in 2025 what it was like to lose Paris-Roubaix to a cyclocross specialist in Mathieu van der Poel. Fast forward 12 months, and it was Wout Van Aert who came in the way of the Slovenian's dream of completing the monument list on the Hell of the North.

It was a race where bad luck followed him. It's not by chance that the race has earned such a nickname. "No, I think, like most other people today I had a lot of problems with the punctures. I had three punctures today, and three bike changes, it was not ideal but I had a super strong team to bring me back right before Arenberg. But I was a bit cooked," the World Champion admitted in a post-race interview.

It was a chaotic moment in the race, with UAE working smoothly towards making the race hard for its leader, but a badly timed puncture forcing him to take a neutral service bike. Whilst it worked properly, he needed to change it a second time as soon as possible, which still required several minutes due to the chaos on the narrow cobbled roads.

He returned just before the Trouée d'Arenberg, however having worked a lot by himself, aside from the high speed that his teammates needed to print out to get him to come back. He was effectively isolated, although that wasn't the decisive factor in the race.

The hard chase meant he no longer had his best legs. He followed Wout Van Aert's acceleration on Arenberg whilst the favourites' groups slowly thinned down due to mechanicals. He then followed Wout Van Aert's second major attack, going through him to press on.

But the difference he was able to make in all races previously this year, he wasn't able to do today. "When he attacked the first time I still believed I could counter-attack afterwards. We shared the work quite well but... Like, the cobbles, after his attack... Carrefour is really hard, but then the wind is also in the face and I just couldn't... I knew from there that it's going to be 99% impossible but I still hoped not in the sprint.

Attacking and arriving solo to the old velodrome was his best shot at victory, but he didn't have the conditions to make it happen. "When I was with Wout there was not much freshness in the legs to really maybe have a chance to drop him on the cobbles. I saw quite fast that it would be mission possible. I gave my best in the sprint, he won Champs-Élysées in the end so it's hard to beat him".

Pogacar is a strong sprinter and Van Aert has notoriously lost several high-level races in sprints over the past few years, which made it an unknown then at the end of such a hard race. But for Pogacar, the answer looked clear. "But when I started the sprint my legs were just like spaghetti".

He has now finished second on both of his occasions, but proved last year was not luck. He is well capable of taking it in the future. "I cannot say now, maybe yes".

Asked if it was the most difficult monument to win, he confirms that it might be for him but that he will continue the pursuit. "Right now it seems like two weeks ago I would say Sanremo but now coming second again here. It's still my second time here, so let's give it time and let's see".