World champion Tadej Pogacar will compete in Paris-Roubaix for the first time. However, victory in the "Hell of the North" is only part of a bigger plan.
26.03.2025, 10:54
26.03.2025, 13:28
SDA
Cycling star Tadej Pogacar will ride the infamous cobblestone classic Paris-Roubaix for the first time. This was announced by the world champion's team.
Accordingly, the Slovenian will skip both the E3 Prize on Friday and Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday in order to concentrate on the Tour of Flanders on April 6 and the "Hell of the North" a week later.
A victory in Roubaix would be the penultimate piece of the puzzle in Pogacar's hunt for the five monuments of cycling. The 26-year-old has already won three of these races - Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy.
Last Saturday, he narrowly failed to win Milan-Sanremo once again. So far, only the Belgians Eddy Merckx, Rik Van Looy and Roger De Vlaeminck have managed to win all five monuments at least once.
Team against participation
Pogacar's participation in Paris-Roubaix was kept a secret for a long time. Although the three-time Tour de France winner trained in the region a few weeks ago and rode in the infamous Arenberg forest, the management of the UAE team was always against his participation. They see Roubaix as a major crash risk and therefore a threat to their most important goal of the season, another overall victory in the Tour de France.
Topographically, the 259-kilometer race to the Roubaix velodrome is not particularly demanding. However, around 55 kilometers of it are on pavé, which demands everything from riders and equipment.
