What did Pogačar and Van der Poel say the day before Paris-Roubaix?

Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel start Sunday as the outright favourites for Paris-Roubaix. The Slovenian and the Dutchman were naturally the main attractions at Saturday's team presentation, where they looked ahead to The Hell of the North for the cameras of VTM Nieuws.

Van der Poel already held a press conference on Thursday and therefore did not have a great deal of fresh news to share. "Last year Tadej was impressive on the cobbles. It will be difficult to beat him, but the team is ready for it," the reigning champion said.

"Tadej is not the only competitor — the others have shown what they can do here too," he added. "I have experience on my side. We're going to try to win for a fourth time."

"The previous edition gave me a lot of confidence," said Pogačar. "I'm certainly going to try to win. Arrive solo at the Vélodrome? That's not strictly necessary. A solo obviously gives more guarantees, but after a tough race I can also rely on my sprint."

Florian Vermeersch is regarded as a key lieutenant for Pogačar. 'Winning five Monuments in a row is not a topic within our team. We're not going to broadcast our plan, but we can look forward with a lot of confidence."

"I need to get as deep into the finale as possible. A lot can still happen behind Tadej, and I'm trying to ride for a result there myself too. But let me be clear: the victory with Tadej takes priority," said Vermeersch.

"I expect a race that will be blown open early. I predict there will be significant gaps again," said Wout van Aert, the third favourite with the bookmakers, to Sporza.

According to him, the opening sectors are therefore becoming more important. "In the past we used to charge towards Arenberg with the entire peloton. Now you see that everyone is afraid of that and makes a selection earlier."

"When will I ultimately be satisfied? That depends on the race. But I'm aiming for the podium at the very least," concluded the Visma | Lease a Bike team leader.