{"id":300525,"date":"2025-11-22T02:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300525\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T02:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:23:12","slug":"tadej-pogacars-final-challenges-paris-roubaix-mission-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300525\/","title":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar’s final challenges: Paris-Roubaix \u2013 Mission impossible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of a mini-series exploring five of the major achievements missing from Tadej Poga\u010dar’s already stunning palmar\u00e8s: Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, an Olympic title, and a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title.<\/p>\n

Can he tick these off? We’re taking a closer look at each race to analyse his chances.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> hasn’t quite won it all in professional road cycling, but he’s not all that far off after seven years of racing at the top level.<\/p>\n

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The Slovenian has so far racked up Grand Tour wins at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, Monument wins at the Tour of Flanders, Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge and Il Lombardia, various WorldTour stage race victories including Tirreno-Adriatico, Paris-Nice and Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9, other major one-dayers including Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, plus a couple of world titles to boot.<\/p>\n

A short list of major races is currently missing from Poga\u010dar’s palmar\u00e8s, including the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, a clutch of other major stage races, Olympic titles and two of cycling’s Monuments.<\/p>\n

We’ve already analysed his chances<\/a> at one of the toughest challenges lying ahead of him in the shape of La Classicissima, Milan-San Remo. In the second part of our series, we’re looking at another momentous task \u2013 Paris-Roubaix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unlike his relationship with Milan-San Remo, there isn’t a long history between Poga\u010dar and the Hell of the North. He has tried, and so far failed, to win the Italian Monument on five occasions, taking third place in each of the past two editions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back in 2015 and 2016, he competed in the junior version of Paris-Roubaix<\/a>, placing 13th at the latter. He wouldn’t revisit the cobblestones of Northern France until this past spring, however, a break of almost a decade before taking on the challenge of the elite race.<\/p>\n

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\"Second\n<\/p>\n

2025 winner Mathieu van der Poel embraces Poga\u010dar after beating him to the Roubaix velodrome (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As such, he obviously has less experience on the harsh cobbles of the Nord, at a race where it’s said experience counts if you want to succeed. That maxim usually rings true, since few riders can turn up and compete at the sharp end of affairs straight away.<\/p>\n

However, that obviously wasn’t the case for Poga\u010dar, who raced a limited spring campaign \u2013 including only Flanders from the usual schedule of cobbled Classics \u2013 before heading to Roubaix for the first time as a pro.<\/p>\n

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It was a debut long teased and much rumoured amid the clear tension of Poga\u010dar wanting to have fun and take part in the biggest races on the calendar versus his team preferring him to avoid the cobbles, tricky roads and risk of crashes of the Classics to instead focus on the big money maker of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

The talk started in mid-February when he and teammate Tim Wellens rode a recon of the race route<\/a>, including the iconic Trou\u00e9e d’Arenberg.<\/p>\n

From there, his directeur sportif Marco Marcato played down the chances of Poga\u010dar racing, saying, “Paris-Roubaix is still not on Tadej’s programme,”<\/a> before the man himself kept the speculation alive<\/a> by saying a decision would be made after San Remo.<\/p>\n

The Italian Classic came and went, with Poga\u010dar again on the podium without a win, and four days later, he confirmed that he’d be lining up in Compi\u00e8gne<\/a>, despite his team remaining at odds with him<\/a> over the decision.<\/p>\n

The E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem were subsequently wiped off his calendar, with only Flanders \u2013 another win to add to the list \u2013 serving as a ‘warm-up’ for the Hell of the North.<\/p>\n

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\"TOPSHOT\n<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar leads a group over the Wallers \u00e0 H\u00e9lesmes ‘Pont Gibus’ cobblestone sector (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Come race day, few quite knew what to expect, though Poga\u010dar was, naturally, on the list of favourites despite his lack of experience. It’s hard to avoid doing so wherever he shows up nowadays, after all.<\/p>\n

He had set several Strava records<\/a> during a recon ride in the week before the race and then more than lived up to that promise during the five-and-a-half-hour slog north itself.<\/p>\n

Despite there being no climbs on which to mount an attack, Poga\u010dar tried and tried again to break clear, with a move at 72km to go on the Tilloy \u00e0 Sars-et-Rosi\u00e8res sector, landing him at the head of the race alone with the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo, Van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen.<\/p>\n

The Belgian would last until Mons-en-P\u00e9v\u00e8le, leaving the debutant and the double-winner to battle it out during the closing 51km. It wouldn’t be a fight all the way to the V\u00e9lodrome Andr\u00e9-P\u00e9trieux, however, as Poga\u010dar went too deep into a corner on the Pont-Thibault \u00e0 Ennevelin sector, 40km from the finish, hitting the deck and dropping out of contention in the process.<\/p>\n

In the end, Poga\u010dar, who like Van der Poel, also battled through a puncture late on, got to Roubaix in second place<\/a>, 1:18 down on the Dutchman. A fantastic showing, even if it wasn’t the win he had hoped for. His team came away with their star rider having avoided any major injuries, too.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Poga\u010dar called Roubaix “the hardest race I’ve ever done in my life”<\/a> in terms of power output, and briefly mentioned “next time I come here”, while Van der Poel said, “for sure, he’ll be back to try and win this race”.<\/a><\/p>\n

But will that return come in 2026? And how can he beat the man who has now taken home the cobblestone trophy in each of the past three years?<\/p>\n

How can Tadej Poga\u010dar win Paris-Roubaix?<\/p>\n

\n

\"TOPSHOT\n<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar in the famous Roubaix showers following his second-place finish on his debut (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

This is a tough question. While the Milan-San Remo route may offer up a handful of potential launchpads with which the best climber in the peloton, such as the Cipressa and Poggio<\/a>, there are fewer obvious locations where he might drop the likes of Van der Poel and race on to glory. Well, to be frank, there are no such locations, given that Paris-Roubaix is a race with no hills.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Paris-Roubaix parcours features numerous flashpoints where the big moves are made. The first main sortings-out happen at Haveluy \u00e0 Wallers and the Arenberg<\/a>. Later on in the race, Mons-en-P\u00e9v\u00e8le, Camphine-en-P\u00e9v\u00e8le, and Carrefour de l’Arbre<\/a> more often than not play host to the decisive moves.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar will need to leave behind the specialists \u2013 Van der Poel, Philipsen, Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert \u2013 somewhere. In 2025, he dispatched with most of them, though he was lucky in that Pedersen suffered a puncture just as the decisive split was made at the front.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to see where that can happen, though, especially given the raw power and winning know-how Van der Poel possesses. The three-time winner has soloed to the finish of Paris-Roubaix with advantages of 46 seconds, three minutes, and 1:18 for an average of 1:41. Those aren’t small margins to close up, let alone match and then leave that rider behind.<\/p>\n

The reality of the situation is that, no matter where he attacks or what tactic he pulls out of the bag, Poga\u010dar simply isn’t going to produce as much power on the flat as Van der Poel, who weighs in 10kg heavier. We’ve seen that he can drop the Dutchman on the bergs of the Tour of Flanders<\/a> \u2013 it’s where his lower weight, and thus, higher power-to-weight ratio, comes into play.<\/p>\n

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\"TOPSHOT\n<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar will have to overcome the fearsome force of Van der Poel and Alpecin-Deceuninck to ever win the race (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Obviously, Poga\u010dar can’t use that to his advantage at Paris-Roubaix, and given his Grand Tour commitments, the chances of him piling on the pounds to target one race seem vanishingly small.<\/p>\n

But maybe he doesn’t need to. He was with Van der Poel well into the final, after all. On his debut, too, having demonstrated he was stronger than every other cobbled Classics specialist in the race, putting to one side the poor luck of Pedersen and a Van Aert not at 100%.<\/p>\n

And that was after a flurry of attacks and moves dotted throughout the race \u2013 some of them which can perhaps be dialled back in future participations. Just 30km into this year’s race, he was chasing down moves at the front of the peloton, while later on, he led the race through the Arenberg. Then there were the attacks at Wallers, Tilloy and Mons-en-P\u00e9v\u00e8le before the brief acceleration at Pont Thibault before his fall.<\/p>\n

Those attacks added up to “the hardest race I’ve done in my life” he said later, adding that his crash was also caused by inexperience \u2013 “When you go full gas and motos are in front of you and they don’t turn, you also think there’s no turn. But I should know there’s a corner, so no excuses,” he said.<\/p>\n

With some experience behind him, a touch of energy-saving riding here and there, and that extra course know-how, who’s to say he couldn’t match Van der Poel further into the race \u2013 perhaps even to the velodrome \u2013 in future?<\/p>\n

It’ll take something extra to pull off the win, though. Dropping Van der Poel before the finish, or even beating the likes of him, Philipsen, Pedersen and Van Aert in a velodrome sprint, might just come down to legs on the day or a stroke of luck rather than any particular strategic move.<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar has won plenty of races during his career, and he looks set to win plenty more. Along with Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix poses the biggest challenge yet, and the two races look like the hardest challenges of all. He’s already stood on the podium of both, but the step up to the top step is a big one.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Can Poga\u010dar win Paris-Roubaix, or could it end up something he’s left chasing? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is part of a mini-series exploring five of the major achievements missing from Tadej Poga\u010dar’s already stunning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-300525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}