In a hotel lobby in Waregem, 100 kilometres and two days away from the Antwerp startline of this year's Tour of Flanders, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) sits before cameras and microphones, in what would have been a very different press conference were it held a week ago. I look to the journalist next to me, who has “Remco” scribbled in capitals at the top of their notepad.

A story with three characters now has a fourth, and its writers are eager to find out how their protagonist feels about it. Insights into Pogačar’s recovery post an epic Milan-Sanremo win are virtually small-talk now. As a journalist mining for plot-twists, the news this week was gold dust. Soon, questions about Remco Evenepoel’s surprise appearance on Sunday’s startlist are coming thick and fast: 

“If Remco attacks – is that something you fear, or something you prefer?” 

“I mean, I like it if I’m watching the race on TV,” jokes the Slovenian rider in response. This weekend, he hopes to defend his Flanders title and secure his twelfth Monument win – a statistic which feels tiring even to write, let alone achieve. To do so will put only Eddy Merckx between him and the crown of all-time Monument wins.  

“If I’m in the race and not in position, then I don’t like it. It’s more stressful with Remco here, for sure. He can attack in the most random place, and you need to be ready for that. 

“You can never let him go in the front with a couple of seconds, because it’s almost impossible to catch him, he’s so fast. If he can make a gap, it’s difficult to bring him back. He’s unpredictable.” 

Pogačar and his UAE Emirates-XRG teammates have been reconning the parcours in Belgium (Image credit: SWpix.com)

‘Unpredictable’ has become a delicious, sacred word in a world of Pogačar dominance, and hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth increases the anticipation of Sunday’s event tenfold. 

While performances from Mathieu Van der Poel and Wout van Aert at the cobbled Classics in the week preceding Flanders laid down a tripartite narrative of potential success at de Ronde, one couldn’t help but feel the sense that it was a story forced into headlines. Are we kidding ourselves that Pogačar – the rider aiming for a record-equalling third Tour of Flanders win, having  already won Strade Bianche and Sanremo this year – will not win tomorrow?  

Read more: The return of de Ronde: who will win the men’s Tour of Flanders? 

Pog’s reign this year has left us reaching for characterless evidence to try and find potential gaps where someone might pip him to the post. And while scouring his Cipressa Strava KOM, or reeling through power numbers can put into perspective his talent, numbers can make for soulless storytelling. Remco has brought fresh rivalry. 

Now, in the press conference, Pogačar talks tactics in a way he might not have done previously in the absense of Evenepoel: “I think teams have maybe finally realised that if somebody attacks with 60km to go, there is still time to reorganise themselves at the back. If you work together and not just attack each other over the climbs, there’s more chance to catch the guy in the lead.”  

“Flanders is a very different race. It’s way longer and more demanding. We’ll see. I’m not saying I want to attack every race with 50 or 60 kilometres to go. So maybe, we’ll see, no?”, he says, his “we’ll see” bearing the swagger of his bleach blonde hair. 

That remark says it all. Even if Pogačar’s admittances of doubt about triumph show him merely to be playing to the crowd, it has at least given him something else to think about. Or something to pretend to think about. 

That’s not to say that Evenepoel will win on Sunday, nor that Van Aert or Van der Poel don’t stand a chance at all. But Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s Belgian joker certainly does add to the essence of Flanders fever rippling through the region of the hellingen – heightened by social media posts of riders skipping up the Koppenberg during their recons – and to the status of a race already steeped in over a hundred years of history. 

“I think from my side, it’s good to have a rider like Remco always wanting to race hard to the finish. I’m excited. There’s a lot of competitors who are in really good shape. I’m looking forward to it.” 

To the delight of fans, their favourite band is regrouping. Van Aert, Van der Poel, Evenepoel and Pogačar will be there on Sunday. For Pog, it’s a good thing.