{"id":598291,"date":"2026-04-12T02:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/598291\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T02:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:58:09","slug":"strava-terrorism-tadej-pogacar-posts-new-paris-roubaix-cobbled-kom-during-recon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/598291\/","title":{"rendered":"Strava terrorism? Tadej Poga\u010dar posts new Paris-Roubaix cobbled KOM during recon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar doesn\u2019t post much on Strava. Only 15 rides this year are visible on the social fitness platform. We\u2019re just guessing here, but he probably rides more than that. So when the reigning world champion does make a post, it\u2019s usually making a point.<\/p>\n

So far this year, Strava posts are of his race wins, announcing contests, calling out fan\u2019s bad behaviour on training rides<\/a> or showing his competition he has the speed to win ahead of big races.<\/p>\n

A shot across the bow of the competition<\/p>\n

His latest bit of Strava terrorism? Posting KOM efforts on key Paris-Roubaix cobbles sections while out on a casual recon ride<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Poga\u010dar and his UAE Emirates-XRG teammates his the cobbles for a 146-km recon ride ahead of Sunday\u2019s Monument. Along the way, the team nabbed several KOM\u2019s on key cobbled sectors.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar averaged 47.5 km\/h for 3:04 to take the KOM on the Warlaing \u00e0 Brillon sector, which could be a critical section of the race. Especially if Poga\u010dar and UAE want it to be.<\/p>\n

Even more Canadians added to the Paris-Roubaix start list<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just Brillon. Poga\u010dar also took the KOM on Pav\u00e9s de Hornaing \u00e0 Erre, holding 47.3 km\/h for 50 seconds. That section leads into Brillon, indicating UAE might want to make the race hard heading into that section, putting pressure on early as they have in other big races this year.<\/p>\n

More evidence of that strategy? Between Poga\u010dar\u2019s two KOM\u2019s, teammate Florian Vermeersch nabbed a crown of his own on the longer\u00a0Hornaing \u00e0 Wandignies-Hamage segment, averaging a whopping 50 km\/h to cover 3.71km in 4:27. Oof.<\/p>\n

Warning shots isn\u2019t the same as calling the shots<\/p>\n

While those numbers are impressive, and definitely put the competition on notice, training days aren\u2019t the same as race days. \u00a0There\u2019s no guarantee that UAE will have enough control over the race to use those sectors to their advantage. Paris-Roubaix is so chaotic that trying to control the race is next to impossible.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not even a guarantee that this recon ride reveals anything about the team\u2019s strategy. But Poga\u010dar is proving very methodical in his approach to one-day races he wants to win this year, and in year\u2019s past. And quite successful at executing the plans he develops, using his uber-powerful team to dictate the race to the extent that is possible.<\/p>\n

UAE aren\u2019t the only strong team and Poga\u010dar isn\u2019t the only pre-race favourite for Sunday. But they are the team with the most momentum this season, and he has won every race he\u2019s started in 2026. As for motivation? Paris-Roubaix stands as one of the last remaining races Poga\u010dar hasn\u2019t been able to win while his main rival, Mathieu van der Poel, is looking for his fourth consecutive win. Either one would make history if they take the win Sunday. Now it\u2019s just a matter of who gets to write their name in the records, again, and who else in the peloton has something to say about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar doesn\u2019t post much on Strava. Only 15 rides this year are visible on the social fitness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,58563,82,59069,1422],"class_list":{"0":"post-598291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-paris-roubaix","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-strava","14":"tag-tadej-pogacar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598291","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=598291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}