Tadej Pogačar, the men’s world road race champion, has just taken several prestigious Strava KOMs along the Paris-Roubaix course.
Ahead of his upcoming debut at the Queen of the Classics, Tadej Pogačar has been out training on the race’s infamous cobbled roads.
In a 212.96km training ride, posted to Strava yesterday, Pogačar rode from northern France to Belgium, averaging an impressive 37.6kph.
Along the way, Pogačar tackled many of Paris-Roubaix’s most feared sectuers, notching up record times on the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle and four-start Auchy-lez-Orchies à Bersée.
He even got a second-place trophy on the five-star Carrefour de l'Arbre, finishing just one second off Wout Van Aert’s KOM time from his third-place finish at the 2023 edition – the second-fastest edition of the race ever (behind last year’s race).
He finished his ride by reconing key climbs from this weekend’s Tour of Flanders, such as the Oude Kwaremont.
On this ride, he posted only his third-best time up that climb – though it’s a KOM he already holds from his winning ride at the 2023 edition of that race, so perhaps he didn’t feel a need to dig too deep at that point.
Either way, despite the help of a slight north-northeast tailwind of 25.4 km/h (which counts as a “moderate breeze”, according to the Beaufort Wind Force Scale), Pogačar must have been putting out some serious power on this ride.
That will come as no surprise to anyone who's watched him race in recent years, of course.
It’s one thing to take a KOM while racing with a peloton and teammates, though, and another to take them while out on training rides – especially on famous roads (if you can call them that) such as these.
At the time of writing, for example, Mons-en-Pévèle has seen 39,168 attempts by 23,394 people.
One thing we don’t know, however, is what bike Pogačar used – his Strava file simply lists his bike as “Čolnago”.
The speed would suggest he used his Colnago Y1Rs aero bike, though given Colnago says that only has clearance for 30mm tyres – relatively small by modern Roubaix standards – might he have ridden a new V5Rs all-rounder instead?
This weekend’s Tour of Flanders should give us a taste of what to expect at the Hell of the North, but the dominant trend in recent years has been for riders to use their aero bikes with the biggest tyres they can squeeze in.
The question on everyone’s lips is whether Pogačar can repeat Matheiu Van Der Poel’s trick of winning the historic race in the rainbow jersey. Whatever bike he rides, then, it certainly seems like the legs won’t be an issue.
