{"id":587618,"date":"2026-04-05T19:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/587618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:13:09","slug":"tadej-pogacar-has-an-answer-for-almost-everything-after-tour-of-flanders-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/587618\/","title":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar has an answer for almost everything after Tour of Flanders win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar managed on Sunday to win the Tour of Flanders<\/a> for the third time<\/a> in his still relatively young career. Around two hours after crossing the line in Oudenaarde, the Slovenian of UAE Team Emirates-XRG sat down for the press conference with the international cycling media in a building near the finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what to say,\u201d the Slovenian had still said in his television flash interview immediately after the race. But after having had time to enjoy his own celebration \u2014 and to share that moment with Demi Vollering of FDJ-Suez after the women\u2019s race \u2014 the narrative had changed quite a bit by the time he faced the media around 6:45 PM local time.<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar press conference after Tour of Flanders<\/p>\n

Tadej, where does this victory rank for you?
\u201cIt was a very hard race against strong competition. Everyone raced really aggressively and gave everything, so that only makes this win more meaningful. Flanders is simply a super-tough race with a beautiful atmosphere for the fans, and that is why I love it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

You could win all five Monuments this year.
\u201cI now have two out of five, so let\u2019s not rush things. Paris-Roubaix? Motivation is high, pressure is low. As the tyres will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m first going to enjoy this victory and then we\u2019ll look toward Roubaix, where we will also start with a very strong team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game had another incident with the train.<\/a> How did that happen in your experience?
\u201cI hadn\u2019t had that question yet, nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, not nice actually. We were riding there and suddenly three guys jumped onto the road. Mikkel Bjerg had been riding on the front all day, and then suddenly those men were there. But how can you stop an entire group in one second?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should have stopped us earlier, not ten metres before the crossing. I thought it was a protest. But the rule they used there was a bit strange. They should have stopped both the breakaway and us, but in the end Mikkel was so strong that he was able to control those extra two minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read on below the video!<\/p>\n

How did you handle the race afterwards?
\u201cWe have a very strong team and they made sure I could start the hilly section without spending too much energy. In Flanders you need that, but you also need exceptional legs. Fortunately, I had them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kwaremont is the hardest climb and it is the longest real effort in the race, while after that it still keeps going up and down a bit all the way to the Paterberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you talk to Mathieu after the attack?
\u201cNot really, because there was no time for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was he fully committed?
\u201cI had some doubts as well, because you can\u2019t feel what he feels. Maybe he\u2019s bluffing, maybe he isn\u2019t. You think about everything, but in the end he rode, as always, for everything he was worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had some doubts as well, because you can\u2019t feel what he feels. Maybe he\u2019s bluffing, maybe he isn\u2019t. You think about everything, but in the end he rode, as always, for everything he was worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

Do they still enjoy racing against you, do you think?
\u201cSome of them maybe do, others maybe don\u2019t. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

They might get a little discouraged.
\u201cBut why? I\u2019ve only had three race days so far, out of I-don\u2019t-know-how-many race days there are.\u201d<\/p>\n

You just keep getting better. Mathieu said he is at his best, but that also seems to apply to you. How do you keep finding that extra layer?
\u201cI\u2019m lucky that I\u2019m still improving, or that there is still room for improvement. I think that mostly comes because the competition keeps forcing me to the limit, but it won\u2019t go on forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd be careful: when I do a training session, I suffer just like all of you do on the bike. At a different speed, of course, but I\u2019m just as tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you give an insight into your preparation for Roubaix?’
\u201cWe have prepared well, but we will see next Sunday.\u201d (grins)<\/p>\n

So not an answer for absolutely everything after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar managed on Sunday to win the Tour of Flanders for the third time in his still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,172195,77973,85,6494,167262,19805],"class_list":{"0":"post-587618","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-idl-productions","12":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tadej-pogacar","15":"tag-tour-of-flanders","16":"tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587618","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=587618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}