Why was Tadej Pogacar in Roubaix in a week with wet and dangerous cobbles? "That's quite a risky" stunned local argues

This Tuesday, before making the trip to Spain for their training camp in Benidorm, Spain; Tadej Pogacar and a few of his teammates made the trip to northern France to test material and further explore the cobbled sectors of Paris-Roubaix. This was to the delight of a few local cyclists, however there was surprise that this was done under bad weather conditions.

French news outlet La Voix du Nord knew of the testing day and was following along with the team's training, and on the way so were a few lucky fans who were caught by surprise. Jean-Luc Gallus was one of them, a local rider who happened to recognize a few figures he sees on TV ride right in front of him. 

"As I got closer, I recognized Tim Wellens's Belgian champion's jersey. Then I saw the rainbow bike and realized it was Pogacar," he told. "I asked him if I could take a picture. He said it was no problem at all, and he even posed for me."

What followed was a morning the local rider certainly won't ever forget, and almost escaped the eyes of the media. Pogacar, Nils Politt, Florian Vermeersch and Tim Wellens were present in the roads of the 'Hell of the North', confirming their intention to race the monument in April of next year, and forming what is likely the key block around the World Champion.

"I heard them talking. They were going back towards Cysoing to take on the Bourghelles cobblestones and return via l'Arbre. He was surprised." On the Carrefour de l'Arbre, Pogacar was testing along equipment as Wout van Aert did a few weeks back. However van Aert - who even shared first-hand video footage of his recon - had different and better conditions.

Gallus was surprises that the World Champion was going through the motions in Roubaix on that particular day taking into consideration the particularly bad state of the cobblestones at this time. “That's quite a risky undertaking in the middle of winter. It's been raining a lot lately. The cobblestones are wet and there are muddy sections.”