On Sunday, when Tadej Pogačar was heading for the victory in the Tour de Flandre, my mind has given what it has already done in the Tour de France and so many other stage races too, not only the classics.
As I said several times about Pogačar in the Tour de France or a week-long stage, where can you beat it? Over the past 30 years, you can come back to the guys who have been a good three-week race runners, and with 95 or even 100% of them, there were always places where they were not the best. As in the time of Bernard Hinault, let’s say, there were climbers that he could not correspond in the mountains.
But with Pogacar, there is nowhere where you can find a weakness – it can be judged against the best, it can roll well on the dish and in the wind, it can descend, it can do any bloody. So where can you have the opportunity to put it in a little difficulty? The answer is – there is not such a place.
And it’s the race on stage. Now when you come to the classics, he presents himself against guys who are specialists in cobbled races like Flanders and he is also able to pass these guys from his wheel. It’s just crazy what he is able to do – it’s a talent in his own class.
He manages the pressure very well, and when he asked the questions, he is like “ah of course, we will go there and see what we can do”. But when you are really great, then the pressure disappears because you know yourself, that feeling – it takes a lot of pressure because you know you can do it on the road. You can simply produce these performance.
To look at what he did in Flanders, what impressed me first, even before his final attack, it was the way he put all these movements, putting everyone at the limit and would never reach the limit itself. He took so much time on the guys hanging forward, in a few hundred meters, he could resume 15-20 seconds, just like that. He controlled what was in front and made life so difficult to the guys who were with him.
But when you entered the real important points of the race, it was always going to be Pogačar against Mathieu Van der Poel and as I said last week, Van der Poel was necessarily in difficulty in corresponding it on the Ouemont Oude. It happens to such a late point and it’s so long, if you start to suffer a little, that’s where Pog will kick you. And it turned out to be like that.
Everyone was talking about Kwaremont during the last time he was going to hit so hard and everyone should be the best day of his life to stay with him.
Could the only thing for Van der Poel: could it hang on? Everyone was talking about it and Pogačar may have thought he could. But the rest there was no way. Then there was the way he attacked, which was right to wear everyone, including Van der Poel and that worked. Because Van der Poel was not too far, but when Pogačar attacked, he only lasted a few hundred meters, then it was over.
I do not think that Van der Poel was running it during second place, however, even if for some, perhaps, when they started the race, get on the podium at most would have been in mind. His attitude was “I will see how I am at the end, and I hope that I will be as good as I was in San Remo” and then he could have equaled Pog.
He did very well, managing the surprise attacks of Pogačar, there was a few times when he was out of position and he could very well get back on the steering wheel. In fact, he looked really good until the last time on Kwaremont. But that’s the point – mounting Kwaremont after such a distance, this difficult race, if you are a little distant, then someone who is just super human like Pog ‘, then you get caught.
When Van der Poel could not follow, it was noticeable to see how he dropped it fairly quickly and we saw that he had been caught by Wout Van Aert and the rest. So he wanted to see what would happen after the Kwaremont and perhaps if they worked very well together, it could have returned. So you just have to change your tactic, in a fraction of a second, you must do it.
The question is now to know how it changes things for Tadej Pogačar in Paris-Roubaix? He wants to do all these races, and you might think that the Flanders tour is one thing, but Roubaix – the risk is significant. If it goes wrong in the wrong direction, it could upset his preparation and defense of the Tour de France. But at the same time, that makes Pogačar what he is, he likes to do the “slightly crazy” shopping.
Paris-Roubaix is another race compared to Flanders, however, it is very different.
I think it will be more difficult for him to make a difference too, because on the apartment and the cobblestones, you have a lot of guys like Van der Poel, and Wout Van Aert who can cling better to his wheel compared to an ascent like Kwaremont, where it was much more difficult. But with Pogačar, I’m afraid to say too much because we could see him win next Sunday in Roubaix too.
I would say that Paris-Roubaix is a little more technical, and even if you cannot put a fault in its bicycle manipulation, there are still two steps from Flanders on the cobblestones there, with all the turns and so on. It will therefore be a greater challenge. He will not be as strong a favorite for Roubaix as yesterday and if I was a Paris, I would not put money from him to earn Paris-Roubaix. Even after Flanders. I think the other guys have the experience of the race there before, which Pogačar did not have, and Sunday, the way he was run also suited Pogačar so well. Everything played in his hands, the other guys being so tired before he even attacks.
I think that for Roubaix too, guys like Van der Poel and Visma will have the teammates to control the major attacks early. They will not watch Pog and watch the water and expect them to do everything. I think other guys will think: we have an excellent opportunity to win this race, don’t leave it all about Pogačar and his team. We will also have to take it in our hands and as we have seen now, the breaks are also controlled in the previous parts of the classics.
So, it’s always going to be summed up with the best guys to fight for victory. But then again, with Pogačar, you never know what he can also find.
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