Even in the Van der Poel household, it’s not exactly clear who has the upper hand going into Paris-Roubaix.
After the Tour of Flanders, Adrie van der Poel sized up the looming rematch between his son, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.
And, well, it didn’t lean heavily either way. “In the Tour of Flanders the ratio is 60/40. But on Sunday, it will be 50/50,” he said, via WielerFlits. But can Pogačar actually do this?
An impossible win?
How did we get here? How is a rider who is not supposed to win the Hell of The North, being called a contender by Papa Van der Poel, of all people.
Flanders, with its climbs, suited Pogačar’s repeated accelerations. Roubaix, though, brings a different set of variables. You’ve got long, flat sectors where positioning, wind and sheer luck can swing the race. But what you don’t have are crazy climbs where Pogi can be Pogi and go absolutely nuclear.
Adrie said he came away encouraged by his son’s ride in Belgium, noting the gap wasn’t as big as it looked. He also expects a similar group of contenders to line up, even if the script plays out differently on the cobbles.
For his part, Pogačar has been pretty chill. He said motivation is high but pressure is low heading into the one Monument still missing from his palmarès.
But back to the van der Poel fam. It’s not like Adrie van der Poel doesn’t know just how to win Monuments.
The former pro won Liège – Bastogne – Liège, and the Tour of Flanders (the same year Fenwick, Ont.’s Steve Bauer just missed the podium). He also won Amstel Gold race and although he never won Roubaix, he was close with a third place, getting outkicked by Classics star Sean Kelly, who took the dub.
In 2025, the world champion was second, after getting clear with MvdP. Pogacar crashed toward the end, but what could he have done to beat the Alpecin-Premier Tech rider? The odds would surely be in van der Poel for the sprint in Roubaix. And Pogi can’t drop him on the cobbles. Like…that’s not possible, right?
…Right?