{"id":588563,"date":"2026-04-07T18:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/588563\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:39:09","slug":"even-van-der-poels-dad-thinks-pogacar-might-beat-him-at-roubaix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/588563\/","title":{"rendered":"Even van der Poel\u2019s dad thinks Poga\u010dar might beat him at Roubaix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even in the Van der Poel household, it\u2019s not exactly clear who has the upper hand going into Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>\n

After the Tour of Flanders, Adrie van der Poel sized up the looming rematch between his son, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

And, well, it didn\u2019t lean heavily either way. \u201cIn the Tour of Flanders the ratio is 60\/40. But on Sunday, it will be 50\/50,\u201d he said, via WielerFlits<\/a>. But can Poga\u010dar actually do this?<\/p>\n

An impossible win?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Flanders, with its climbs, suited Poga\u010dar\u2019s repeated accelerations. Roubaix<\/a>, though, brings a different set of variables. You\u2019ve got long, flat sectors where positioning, wind and sheer luck can swing the race. But what you don\u2019t have are crazy climbs where Pogi can be Pogi and go absolutely nuclear.<\/p>\n

Guimard on Poga\u010dar if he wins all 5 Monuments: \u2018Then he should go on vacation and let the others try\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Adrie said he came away encouraged by his son\u2019s ride in Belgium, noting the gap wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

For his part, Poga\u010dar has been pretty chill. He said motivation is high but pressure is low heading into the one Monument still missing from his palmar\u00e8s.<\/p>\n

But back to the van der Poel fam. It\u2019s not like Adrie van der Poel doesn\u2019t know just how to win Monuments.<\/p>\n

The former pro won Li\u00e8ge \u2013 Bastogne \u2013 Li\u00e8ge, and the Tour of Flanders (the same year Fenwick, Ont.\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t drop him on the cobbles. Like\u2026that\u2019s not possible, right?<\/p>\n

\u2026Right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even in the Van der Poel household, it\u2019s not exactly clear who has the upper hand going into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[191778,49,48,635,13633,82,1422],"class_list":{"0":"post-588563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-2026-paris-roubaix","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tadej-pogacar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}