I would love to see Tadej Pogačar ride Paris-Roubaix - even if it won’t be this season

Tadej Pogačar casually broke the cycling internet this week. The world champion, who had already hinted at a Classics training ride, posted a short video on Instagram of him riding the Arenberg Trench, causing many to lose their minds over the thought of the UAE Team Emirates rider racing Paris-Roubaix in April. The dream was shortlived, however, with a denial that Roubaix was on Pogačar’s programme for this year, although he is thought to have ridden every cobbled sector at the weekend.

As speculated, it does seem like the recon ride was just the 26-year-old teasing his rivals, those who write about cycling (ahem) and his fans at the same time with the video. That’s the kind of guy Pogačar is, doing things for fun, with the knowledge that a video like this would cause chaos, and endless conjecture over the merits of him riding Roubaix, or the lack thereof. It helps that we’re in the pre-show of the cycling season, when not a lot is happening, and a simple Instagram post by the best rider in the world can create this much chaos, but it is all very well thought out.

Adam Becket

News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. This piece is part of The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email adam.becket@futurenet.com - should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.

I would love to see Pogačar race Paris-Roubaix. The Slovenian rarely does anything but put his all into any given objective, and it would be fascinating to see how he got on in a new scenario. He’s usually pretty good at most things too - his first attempt at the Tour of Flanders saw him finish a frustrated fourth, but he made up for it the next season, with experience, soloing away to a famous victory. His mere presence would elevate the whole occasion, imagine how watched he would be, and how doubt would creep into the minds of Mathieu van der Poel or Wout van Aert. It would be box office.

The three-time Tour de France winner is not the kind of rider who traditionally does well at Roubaix; even in the age of all riders being lighter and less acutely specialised, he is a climber-based all-rounder, hence his success at the hilly Tour of Flanders. Roubaix could hardly be flatter. And yet, Pogačar is not a traditional rider. He breaks moulds, does the unthinkable, and would at least attempt the Hell of the North. When you think of the world champion, do not think of the Grand Tour riders of the last ten years, from Chris Froome to Jonas Vingegaard, who have never even dabbled in the cobbled Classics, let alone taken the plunge into Roubaix. Think of the riders of previous eras, like Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault, who really could do it all. Pogačar probably belongs to that club.

He has form on the pavé, too, with his barnstorming ride on stage five of the 2022 Tour de France, which I witnessed personally, mouth slightly agape. While the then Jumbo-Visma went through their nightmare day, with Primož Roglič crashing, and Vingegaard having his comedy bike change, Pogačar flew through the 11 sectors. That was obviously a different scenario, a stage of a Grand Tour rather than the more specialist test of Paris-Roubaix itself, but it proved that there was potential there. If anyone was to show that you don’t have to be a heavier, more powerful rider to win Roubaix, it would be Pogačar.

If it is not this year, then it surely will happen at some point. He has won Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia. He has won the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the World Championships in the same season. He is a man after bigger tests, and along with Milan-San Remo and the Vuelta a España, Paris-Roubaix is one of the biggest slots to fill on his palmarès. The prospect of Pogačar riding Paris-Roubaix might also be the most fascinating, because we don’t know how it will go.

The only thing stopping Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates diving straight into the challenge, though, is the potential risk of incident that comes with riding Roubaix, especially for the first time. Any crash could cause an injury which would seriously hamper preparations for the Tour de France, always the biggest goal of the year. You only have to look at Pogačar’s rush back from a broken wrist at Liège in 2023, or Vingegaard’s return from his punctured lung suffered at Itzulia to see how much an early season injury can affect the whole year. The counter to this is that a crash, an injury, could happen anytime, so why not just gamble. It’s all a gamble anyway.

I’ll be at Roubaix in April, and I’d love to see Pogačar there, just to see the drama that would inevitably ensue in the build-up, and at the race. At 26, though, he does have time on his side for projects like this, so it could easily wait, but when he does turn up on the pavé, I wouldn’t bet against a crazy victory.

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