Mathieu van der Poel, get ready: after Roubaix loss, Pogacar is already flying over the cobbles again

Tadej Pogacar is not hiding his ambitions for next year. The Tour de France, the Worlds in Canada and the classics are again of great importance. But perhaps there is still one race he would most like to win, especially because of the way he lost it: Paris-Roubaix may be at the top of the list. At least his actions over the winter do point in that direction....

Would Pogacar be at the start of Paris-Roubaix? It held the cycling world in a grip in the spring. The Slovenian flirted with the idea and even went on a brief recon, but then later came confirmation: the world champion was only too happy to have a cobblestone in his trophy room. And he showed early in the race that he meant business.

Pogacar accelerated several times and eventually got into a man-against-man battle with Mathieu van der Poel. However, just under 40 kilometers from the finish, fate struck: the UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader missed a corner and went down. After a bike change it became clear that the Dutchman from Alpecin-Deceuninck could no longer be caught. Thus, the Slovenian crossed the finish line in the Vélodrome disappointed.

The woeful loss may have made him hungrier than ever. Hence, he was back on his bike this Tuesday. Not on sunny Gran Canaria, where he rode last week, but in the cold of northern France. Together with Tim Wellens, Florian Vermeersch and Nils Politt, he set out again to explore the cobblestones of the Hell of the North. And that wasn't just any ride.

His German teammate managed to put the 164-kilometer lap on Strava . There it could be seen that a lot of famous cobbled sections were included in the training ride, such as the three-star sections of Cysoing à Bourghelles and Bourghelles à Wannehain, but also the four-star section of Camphin-en-Pévèle and the five-star section of Carrefour de l'Arbre. And in the round, the foursome broke several records....