Paris-Roubaix and
Jonas Vingegaard were the main topics of an interview
Tadej Pogacar recently gave. The
UAE Team Emirates rider admits that he will race the French classic one day, but is first tackling the races that suit him best to try and obtain an even more luxurious palmarès.
An incredible rider who is as strong and versatile as just about any other in the peloton, he tells Road Code that "you need to have very good people around you, big support, you need to have everything that you need to grow as a cyclist. You need to have a bit of talent and a lot of determination," he says. "Then it just comes, a lot of hard work, if you have everything in your hands you just need to grind and do the hard work to be a cyclist and great everywhere. Not only cycling, but also the rest of sports and everything else in life."
However he finds a difficult rival to tackle at the Tour de France, one who has already defeated him twice, Jonas Vingegaard. "He's I would say the best climber in the world right now, he's a very particular cyclist, he can do everything the same like years before," Pogacar says of his rival. "He doesn't need to do like me for example when I just go from that race to another race. He has a plan and he really finishes it off 100% and can do it every year the same."
"He's really good at that and he always comes to the Tour de France crazy prepared. If you compare him with a few years ago, now he's a completely different rider, it's good to see that it's possible to make a big gap from performance from two years ago to now. If you just remove one problem that you have in your life (it can improve significantly, ed.)." Arguably, the thought of a strong Vingegaard in July could very well hamper Pogacar once again from conquering the Tour, and be a rock in his shoe when it comes to Grand Tour ambitions for the future.
Possibly however, he keeps evolving, as his first day of racing in 2024 ended up in an 80-kilometer solo attack at Strade Bianche where he won with several minutes of advantage. He's clearly talented when it comes to the races on rough terrain - as proven by his Tour of Flanders victory - but he admits that the toughest monument of all for him to conquer is also on the radar.
"Yes you will see in Paris-Roubaix one day for sure but first things first, let's go step by step, see how the season goes and how the next season goes, and then we can start to dream of Paris-Roubaix and other goals maybe," he concluded.
