{"id":1865961,"date":"2026-04-04T12:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1865961"},"modified":"2026-04-04T12:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:13:06","slug":"pogacar-poised-for-flanders-takes-nothing-for-granted-you-always-have-some-doubts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1865961","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Poised for Flanders, Takes Nothing for Granted: \u2018You Always Have Some Doubts\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tadej Poga\u010dar may have already won four out of cycling\u2019s five monuments, including the recent Milan-San Remo, but he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground in terms of Sunday\u2019s Tour of Flanders.<\/p>\n
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The Ronde<\/i> is a key goal for the UAE Emirates-XRG rider, and one he has won twice before.<\/p>\n
Yet while he is clearly the best rider in the world, he admits uncertainty about the outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always have some doubts. You can doubt about yourself or about the others,\u201d the Slovenian told journalists in a pre-Flanders press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven for the best in the world, there is always some sort of doubt of their performance or of other competitors. That\u2019s the beautiful part of the sport; you never know what\u2019s going to happen until you race.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The dismissal of any sort of foregone conclusion will be welcomed by many, particularly after the thrilling showdown Poga\u010dar 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.<\/p>\n
The win came down to a very tight sprint against Pidcock, with Poga\u010dar holding off\u2014just about\u2014the Briton in their final lunge for the line.<\/p>\n
The contest was much closer than at other races such as Strade Bianche, where Poga\u010dar attacked 78km from the end and spent over an hour and a half alone.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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Staking everything on a racing-lite program<\/h2>\nTadej Poga\u010dar won the Tour of Flanders last year with a decisive solo move (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Poga\u010dar 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.<\/p>\n
In 2023 he had sixteen, including GC successes in Vuelta a Andalucia and Paris-Nice.<\/p>\n
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This year? Just two days, namely his victories in Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo.<\/p>\n
In other words, no stage race, and a far lighter program.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But Poga\u010dar sees his approach as a plus, not a minus.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I don\u2019t have a big program with the races, racing every second week gives plenty of time to reset and prepare for the next race,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rationale is understandable: after all, he wants to try for the Tour\/Vuelta double this year.<\/p>\n
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In addition, his agent Alex Carera previously said that Poga\u010dar\u2019s drop in form at the end of last year\u2019s Tour was due to an over-heavy program,<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time that is you don\u2019t see the smile on his face, because he was really tired,\u201d he said then in an interview with Velo<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The burnout question<\/h2>\nTadej Poga\u010dar is juggling the pressures and demands of being the best rider in the sport (Photo: Nicolas Tucat \/ AFP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The fatigue Poga\u010dar felt at the end of last year\u2019s Tour is what prompted him to suggest he might end his career early. \u201cBurnouts happen all the time and it can happen to me as well,\u201d he said in July.<\/p>\n
Now, a little over eight months later, he clarifies that he was talking about theoretical risks rather than a personal diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never said that I had burnout last year,\u201d he says. \u201cHowever, there is always a chance of burnout from racing too much, and also just from training too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s even easier to go into that deep hole from training too much that you can\u2019t recover from, and people don\u2019t see that.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFor me, my program is pretty good, and if I manage it well, I should be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday will show just how well Poga\u010dar 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s 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,\u201d he said. \u201c[It] was not too crazy to recover, but I still had to do a few days a bit easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough the weekend and the last few days, I did some good trainings and arrived here with the motivation for Sunday\u2019s race. So, pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize before the race that it was bothering me,\u201d he said of that pressure. \u201cBut a few days after San Remo, it was a satisfaction to finally win it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A stacked lineup<\/h2>\nTadej Poga\u010dar dropped Mathieu van der Poel at Milan-San Remo, and then outsprinted Pidcock in a sprint (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Mathieu van der Poel is, at this point in time at least, one up on Poga\u010dar. He has won three editions of Flanders when compared to his rival\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
They are all very strong riders, but things may well come down to how they can handle Poga\u010dar on the uphills.<\/p>\n
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He has broken his rivals twice before on the Oude Kwaremont and will look to use the race\u2019s steep climbs again on Sunday to make a winning gap.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Koppenberg for us climbers is no problem if it\u2019s dry,\u201d he answered. \u201cIf it\u2019s muddy, you need to have really good skills on the bike. It is most suitable for climbers because it\u2019s steep.\u201d<\/p>\n
He may well need to depend on those uphill skills as the lineup is formidable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d he said, echoing the feelings of many. \u201cWout 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of strong guys on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A solo win, or a nervous sprint?<\/h2>\nTadej Poga\u010dar puts in his winning move in the 2025 Tour of Flanders. Will the same effort result in a win this time around? (Photo: Jan De Meuleneir \/ Belga \/ AFP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
That high quality lineup makes it conceivable that the race could come down to a sprint from a small group. That\u2019s what happened in 2022; he and Van der Poel were clear together, but were caught by two others close to the line. Poga\u010dar ended up a frustrated fourth.<\/p>\n
This time around, how does he feel about the prospect of another gallop to the line?<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you come alone, it\u2019s 100% victory yours,\u201d he answered. \u201cWith a smaller group, the chances are always lower, so it\u2019s always better to come alone. But after such a demanding race, it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
What helps is that he can take reassurance from how he fared against Tom Pidcock two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me some confidence that I beat Tom one-to-one in San Remo,\u201d Poga\u010dar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the sprint, I didn\u2019t know what to expect because I know he\u2019s super-fast. So to beat him by a small margin gave some sort of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will that matter on Sunday, or will the race winner be decided by a different roll of the dice?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll get the answer to that question soon enough.<\/p>\n
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For now, for Poga\u010dar 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.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be wondering that too, savoring the suspense as part of the magic of the race.<\/p>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269025103.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated April 4, 2026 12:29PM Tadej Poga\u010dar may have already won four out of cycling\u2019s five monuments, including the recent Milan-San Remo, but he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground in terms of Sunday\u2019s Tour of Flanders. The Ronde is a key goal for the UAE Emirates-XRG rider, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1865961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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![\"Tadej](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269015520.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Tadej](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2267715016.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Tadej](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2208270991.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")