History beckons Tadej Pogačar. The world champion had to settle for a consecutive runner-up spot at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. Last year a crash with 40 km to go put an end to his challenge against Mathieu van der Poel. This year it was decided by a sprint in the Vélodrome André-Pétrieux losing to Wout van Aert. A matter of metres, not kilometres, separated the Slovenian from glory at The Hell of the North. He’s getting ever so close.
Forever humble in defeat, Pogačar acknowledged what most of the cycling world felt today: this was Van Aert’s day.
“He was so strong that I could feel it was just not meant to be today to drop him. Every time I tried, my legs were not the greatest anymore. I always saw him riding on my wheel. He deserves the victory.”
But his weary eyes also told a different story: this was one that got away. Last year his ride was already enough proof that he is capable of winning Roubaix. This year’s performance further cemented the idea that he’ll get his mitts on a cobblestone at some point in the coming years. But maybe not in 2027. It was perhaps that Pogačar, usually one to be patient with the media, was feeling a bit jaded by it all. In the aftermath of his Sunday in Hell, he said: “I think I will be back, [but] maybe not next year.”
Such is his dominance, only a handful of times have we seen this type of disappointed and despondent Pogačar. He has faced difficulties in the past – The Tour of Flanders in 2022, The Tour de France the same year and again in 2023, Milan-Sanremo in 2025. It usually comes when he has thrown everything at a race and it’s still not gone his way.
But maybe that’s what makes him the greatest ever. He will figure it out. Barring Roubaix, there is yet to be a race for which he hasn’t cracked the code.
“There’s always something that you could do differently,” said Pogačar after the finish. “Right now, so close after the race, I think I did all my best, but maybe tomorrow, after the dust settles, we will maybe analyse and see what I could have done better. I think in such a chaotic race, I did pretty good. I gave it my best.”
Analysing a race and playing the next edition to his strengths is one of the many reasons why he wins so much. Take his previous irritation: for a number of years Milan-Sanremo was his Achilles heel. In March of this year, he figured out La Classicissima conundrum. And he even managed to do so despite some bad luck when he crashed before the Cipressa.
Bad luck came again on Sunday, when Pogačar punctured around 20 km before the Trouée d'Arenberg (with 120 km to go) and had to use a Shimano neutral service bike. The ordeal left him almost a minute behind the likes of Van Aert and Van der Poel.
“First I was riding with a front tyre half flat, and then I broke the wheel on the back and I couldn’t ride anymore. I got the Shimano bike and there was a big gap across to the front group,” said Pogačar, who then later punctured again, this time with around 70 km to go. The two frantic chases required expending energy, which could’ve come in handy later in the race.
“Always when you have problems you waste a little bit of energy and it’s like this. I don’t regret anything. It’s how this race goes.”
It wouldn’t have taken much change for him to have won on Sunday. Had he not had to survive mechanical scares, he might have been able to push a few more watts to drop Van Aert.
It wasn’t to be in 2026. But history tells us that when presented with a puzzle, Pogačar finds a solution.
