Tadej Pogačar hasn’t done any cobbled races to prepare for the Tour of Flanders. He says he didn’t watch Dwars door Vlaanderen to check out the competition. He hasn’t read any pre-race previews and he certainly hasn’t been scrolling through Instagram to see what people are saying about him. He’ll ride De Ronde, then he’ll make an unprecedented appearance at Paris-Roubaix, despite concerns over the risk that poses for his Tour de France ambitions later this season. That’s because, quite simply, Tadej Pogačar doesn’t care what you think. This is a bike rider making his own rules.
“Social media is a cancer of our society,” he says to a room full of journalists from all over the world a few days before Flanders. “You can be on social media all day and there’s positive things but there will always be negative things that come out the most and it can really ruin your day. It’s not worth it to follow news and social media – no offence to you guys – it’s easiest not to care about those things.”
The UAE Team Emirates rider is a straight talker and it's his blunt honesty that makes him so endearing. When asked about why he had made the choice to ride Paris-Roubaix he simply replies: “I still haven’t done it and it’s one of the best races in the world,” he says. Duh.
Image: Tornanti
Your usual Tour de France favourite doesn’t rip up the brutal cobbles of the Arenberg Forest a few months before targeting the yellow jersey, nor is your usual Tour de France contender a favourite to win in Flanders. Pogačar – as he has proven with his superhuman performances season after season – is not like everyone else. He does incredible things on his bike, like coming back from a high-speed crash to win Strade Bianche a few weeks ago or riding 80 kilometres solo to win it the year before, but he makes it look easy. It’s as if he makes the most basic of calculations in his mind and acts on the outcome: riding his bike hard equals winning the bike race. It’s this approach he plans to take to De Ronde on Sunday.
“I will try to make the race as hard as possible,” he states when asked about how he’ll beat his key rival, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu van der Poel. “That will maybe make him tired at the end then the difference in our sprint will be smaller, you never know.”
The Slovenian rider reflects on being beaten by Van der Poel in the final sprint at Milan-Sanremo a few weeks ago with optimism, highlighting that the grippy Belgian bergs are a far cry from the Italian coastal roads: “In Sanremo he beat me quite good but Flanders is a more tiring race. It’s harder throughout the day. I think he’s still going to be hard to beat as it’s small climbs but I’m here to race for victory.
“Mathieu is better in the technical parts and can probably go better on the cobbles, but maybe I can be better after six hours. I know he’s in super good shape so I can’t count on this, but I’ll try to use a gap at some point in the race – so many opportunities and options can happen on Sunday. I’ll grab one and hope for the best.”
Image: Tornanti
What is abundantly clear as Pogačar speaks about contesting the second Monument of the cycling season is that regardless of what happens on Sunday, he has perspective on where the result sits in the grand scheme of his life. When he’s asked his opinion on the performance of Visma-Lease a Bike at Dwars door Vlaanderen which has made headlines over the last few days (Wout van Aert was beaten in the sprint by Neilson Powless despite his team outnumbering the EF Education-EasyPost rider three to one in the finale) he reminds the room that this is only sport.
“It’s just the way racing goes. They made a bit of a mistake, but they were confident and there’s nothing wrong with that, Neilson was just really in top shape for the sprint at the end,” he comments. “A rider like Wout, he goes to races and every time the team relies mostly on him to perform. He goes there for victory and to be second after three against one, that sucks. But it’s part of racing, he will pick himself up, he will come to the next race not thinking about it and he will do his best again. If it goes well for him or not, it’s not the end of the world, it’s just bike racing.”
For a rider so intrinsically involved in the sport, who is arguably the most famous cyclist in the world and the person with the most authority in the professional peloton, Pogačar has an impressive way of blocking out all of the noise. It’s what has helped him be so good so far, and what will be crucial to him continuing his dominance for a long career to come.
One of the final questions that the 26-year-old is asked as the press conference reaches its conclusion is what this all means to him. What legacy does he want to leave behind? His answer reflects what he has been saying for some time now: it doesn’t really matter to Pogačar. His job is to be a bike racer, and he’s very good at it. He tells us that he prefers going home to “have a chill night and drink hot chocolate” with “no stress” at the end of a race rather than drinking podium champagne or Belgian beer. "I'd rather be watching TV with my girlfriend,” he grins. Far away from the rumours, pressure and the scrutiny. That’s what really matters to Tadej Pogačar.
“I don’t think about how people see me. I just want to do whatever keeps me interested in cycling and not lose motivation. It can become boring doing the same thing every year. I want to get the most experiences out of cycling so when I retire I will not have any regrets,” he comments.
“My goal is just to say that I did my best in every aspect of cycling.”
Cover image by James Startt
