Tadej Pogačar is the definitive talent of our times and has won just about everything he’s targeted on the WorldTour calendar, but could the Slovenian now be preparing for an attempt at conquering Paris-Roubaix?
Pogačar is no stranger to the cobbles, having won the Tour of Flanders in 2023, but is yet to line-up for Paris-Roubaix, which takes the cobbles of Flanders and turns the dial up to 11 with 27 sectors of bone-crushing pavé.
With Pogačar winning the Triple Crown – the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Road Race Championships in 2024 – an attempt at Paris-Roubaix could be the next course on the menu for a rider whose appetite for extending his palmares is insatiable.
Pogačar has today posted a video to his Instagram account, showing him riding a recce of Paris-Roubaix’s most-feared sector – the Trouée d'Arenberg (or ‘Arenberg Trench’). As an aside, the video also shows Pogačar on his existing Colnago V4Rs all-round race bike, not Colnago's new and radically-shaped Y1Rs aero bike.
While the Tour de France starts in nearby Lille this summer, Tour organisers haven’t included any Roubaix sectors on the route, though he could be making a detour to the cobbles as part of a recce of the Tour's Grand Départ.
Other than that, there’s little reason for Pogačar to recce the Roubaix cobbles, other than in preparation for the Queens of the Classics. Or, with time to kill, is he simply trolling the peloton’s Roubaix specialists ahead of his planned season start at the UAE Tour on 17 February?
Pogačar’s caption for the video simply stated, ‘Guess the place’, while his employer, UAE Team Emirates XRG, cryptically followed up in the comments with three emojis to hint at a potential Roubaix start: 🔥🪨👀
Paris-Roubaix rarely features on the race calendars of Grand Tour specialists. Their featherweight builds are better suited to the high mountains of the Alps, not the pan-flat cobbles of northern France – where heavier riders come to the fore.
The Classics are notoriously dangerous, too – even by pro cycling standards – and a Tour de France contender is unlikely to disrupt their summer plans by lining up on the cobbles, unless they had serious intent to win the race.
Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx – two of the most decorated riders in the history of the sport – are among the few riders to do the Roubaix-Tour de France double.
Whether Pogačar’s Roubaix recce points to him racing on the pavé this year, or he’s just getting a taste of things for seasons beyond, is to be seen. Pogačar previously poured cold water on a 2025 Roubaix attempt when asked by Slovenian broadcaster RTV in November.
“Paris-Roubaix? Not yet, but you never know,” he said. “If the form is good for such a competition, my program can also be adjusted during the season. I don’t see myself making my debut yet. I will be more likely to contest the Vuelta a Espana next year.”
Mathieu van der Poel – the Paris-Roubaix winner in 2023 and 2024 – would be chief among Pogačar’s rivals if he were to race, and it would be no surprise to Dutchman Van der Poel if he found himself lining up next to Pogačar in the Paris-Roubaix start town of Compiègne.
"He will for sure try it once," Van der Poel told Cycling Weekly at an Alpecin-Deceuninck training camp in December. "Maybe not next year but for sure I think he will try to win it at some point."
And Van der Poel’s response when asked whether Pogačar could win the race?
"For sure. He already showed in the Tour stage we did on the cobbles once that he was really strong so I don’t think it would be a surprise to anyone. He would be one of the favourites in Roubaix if he went."
Has Pogačar changed his 2025 plans to target Roubaix? We’ll watch with interest, and so will Van der Poel and the rest of the Classics specialists of the peloton.
Just when Roubaix riders thought they had escaped the attention of cycling’s all-conquering superstar, Pogačar could be about to derail their seasons.
