Pogačar Poised for Flanders, Takes Nothing for Granted: ‘You Always Have Some Doubts’

Tadej Pogačar may have already won four out of cycling’s five monuments, including the recent Milan-San Remo, but he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground in terms of Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.

The Ronde is a key goal for the UAE Emirates-XRG rider, and one he has won twice before.

Yet while he is clearly the best rider in the world, he admits uncertainty about the outcome.

“You always have some doubts. You can doubt about yourself or about the others,” the Slovenian told journalists in a pre-Flanders press conference.

“Even for the best in the world, there is always some sort of doubt of their performance or of other competitors. That’s the beautiful part of the sport; you never know what’s going to happen until you race.”

The dismissal of any sort of foregone conclusion will be welcomed by many, particularly after the thrilling showdown Pogačar had in Milan-San Remo. He drove a breakaway clear on the Cipressa with Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock in tow, fended off a hard-chasing peloton, and then dropped Van der Poel on the Poggio.

The win came down to a very tight sprint against Pidcock, with Pogačar holding off—just about—the Briton in their final lunge for the line.

The contest was much closer than at other races such as Strade Bianche, where Pogačar attacked 78km from the end and spent over an hour and a half alone.

San Remo was far more tense, keeping the final outcome right up in the air until the end. Fans of the sport are hoping for a similarly dramatic final on Sunday.

Staking everything on a racing-lite program

Pogačar is taking quite a different approach to racing this year when compared to his victories in 2025 and 2023. On those previous occasions he had amassed quite a few more days of competition. Last year he had nine, amongst them his GC win in the UAE Tour.

In 2023 he had sixteen, including GC successes in Vuelta a Andalucia and Paris-Nice.

This year? Just two days, namely his victories in Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo.

In other words, no stage race, and a far lighter program.

That bring with it risks; his key rivals all have had more peloton time than he has had, more opportunities to hone high end form and more chances to compare themselves to the other stars.

But Pogačar sees his approach as a plus, not a minus.

“Because I don’t have a big program with the races, racing every second week gives plenty of time to reset and prepare for the next race,” he explained.

“You don’t have to worry about other races in between, so it gives a lot of time to readjust the training and reset for the next goal.”

The rationale is understandable: after all, he wants to try for the Tour/Vuelta double this year.

In addition, his agent Alex Carera previously said that Pogačar’s drop in form at the end of last year’s Tour was due to an over-heavy program,

“It’s the first time that is you don’t see the smile on his face, because he was really tired,” he said then in an interview with Velo.

The burnout question

The fatigue Pogačar felt at the end of last year’s Tour is what prompted him to suggest he might end his career early. “Burnouts happen all the time and it can happen to me as well,” he said in July.

Now, a little over eight months later, he clarifies that he was talking about theoretical risks rather than a personal diagnosis.

“I never said that I had burnout last year,” he says. “However, there is always a chance of burnout from racing too much, and also just from training too much.

“It’s even easier to go into that deep hole from training too much that you can’t recover from, and people don’t see that.

“For me, my program is pretty good, and if I manage it well, I should be fine.”

Sunday will show just how well Pogačar and his team have gauged things. If they have indeed judged everything right, he will be fresh but also sharp, and not missing any high end.

The final proof will be in how Sunday plays out. But, asked how life has been since La Primavera, he believes he is in the right place.

“[It’s been] pretty good. I finally ticked off the San Remo as a big goal of my career, but I had to still recover from the crash,” he said. “[It] was not too crazy to recover, but I still had to do a few days a bit easier.

“Through the weekend and the last few days, I did some good trainings and arrived here with the motivation for Sunday’s race. So, pretty good.”

What helps is the feeling of momentum gained from his two victories from two races this season. And so to a feeling of lightness after winning in San Remo.

“I didn’t realize before the race that it was bothering me,” he said of that pressure. “But a few days after San Remo, it was a satisfaction to finally win it.”

A stacked lineup

Mathieu van der Poel is, at this point in time at least, one up on Pogačar. He has won three editions of Flanders when compared to his rival’s two. The Alpecin-Premier Tech rider will be one of the big threats to the UAE Emirates leader on Sunday, with Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and the Flanders debutant Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) amongst those who are also tipped.

They are all very strong riders, but things may well come down to how they can handle Pogačar on the uphills.

He has broken his rivals twice before on the Oude Kwaremont and will look to use the race’s steep climbs again on Sunday to make a winning gap.

There was concern this week when the Koppenberg was covered in mud, rendering that ramp very slippery and forcing some riders to walk. How does he feel about that?

“I think Koppenberg for us climbers is no problem if it’s dry,” he answered. “If it’s muddy, you need to have really good skills on the bike. It is most suitable for climbers because it’s steep.”

He may well need to depend on those uphill skills as the lineup is formidable.

“I’m excited,” he said, echoing the feelings of many. “Wout is in really good shape, Remco is always good, as is Mathieu, and Mads Pedersen is coming out from the crash injury showing his form is going up.

“It’s going to be a lot of strong guys on Sunday.”

A solo win, or a nervous sprint?

That high quality lineup makes it conceivable that the race could come down to a sprint from a small group. That’s what happened in 2022; he and Van der Poel were clear together, but were caught by two others close to the line. Pogačar ended up a frustrated fourth.

This time around, how does he feel about the prospect of another gallop to the line?

“If you come alone, it’s 100% victory yours,” he answered. “With a smaller group, the chances are always lower, so it’s always better to come alone. But after such a demanding race, it’s all about how empty the legs are. So I have more chance to win a sprint of a small group here in Flanders than in a race of 100 kilometers.”

Still, going up against the likes of Van der Poel, Van Aert and Pedersen in a sprint is no easy matter. Each are very, very quick and if it comes down to a head to head with any or all of those, the outcome is far from certain.

What helps is that he can take reassurance from how he fared against Tom Pidcock two weeks ago.

“It gives me some confidence that I beat Tom one-to-one in San Remo,” Pogačar said.

“Before the sprint, I didn’t know what to expect because I know he’s super-fast. So to beat him by a small margin gave some sort of confidence.”

Will that matter on Sunday, or will the race winner be decided by a different roll of the dice?

We’ll get the answer to that question soon enough.

For now, for Pogačar and all the other competitors, the niggling doubts will remain. Only one rider can triumph, whoever it is, and until the line is crossed each of them will wonder who it will be.

We’ll be wondering that too, savoring the suspense as part of the magic of the race.