"The Pressure is Low, Like the Tyres Will Be" — Pogacar's Relaxed Pre-Roubaix Press Conference
If the rest of the peloton expected Tadej Pogacar to arrive at Paris-Roubaix weighed down by the historical significance of the task ahead, the world champion used his final press conference before Sunday's Hell of the North to dispel any such notion. Speaking to a packed room of international media at UAE Team Emirates-XRG's hotel in Monchecourt on Wednesday afternoon, Pogacar was at his most relaxed and playful, delivering a line that promptly travelled halfway around the cycling world before the press conference had even ended.
"The pressure is low, like the tyres will be," he said, cracking a wide smile and drawing immediate laughter from the assembled journalists. The quip was a nod both to the famously aggressive tyre-pressure strategies that define Roubaix bike set-ups, and to the absurd expectations that have followed him throughout what has already become a perfect spring of three-for-three Monument wins. On Sunday, Pogacar will attempt to complete what has never been achieved in the Monument era: winning four of the five Monuments in a single spring.
Pogacar's mood throughout the 45-minute session was strikingly different from the tense and focused demeanour he has often shown before Grand Tours. The world champion wore the rainbow stripes on his team kit and looked at ease discussing everything from the forecast to his Florian Vermeersch-assisted recon rides, even fielding a question about whether he might try to celebrate a victory by riding onto the famed Roubaix velodrome with a rose in his mouth — a suggestion he laughed off before suggesting his Flemish team-mate would handle any such theatrics.
Asked directly whether winning the last missing Monument of his career felt like a weight on his shoulders, Pogacar was characteristically honest. "I have already four of the five Monuments and I was second in Roubaix last year," he said. "Even if I do not win on Sunday, my season will still be great. But of course I want this one. I have trained for it differently, with different equipment, with more time on the cobbles. I am as prepared as I can be. The rest is luck and whatever the race decides."
He was more forceful, however, when asked about the extensive two-day recon he and Vermeersch had completed in the hours after the Tour of Flanders. That 210-kilometre training ride across all the cobbled sectors had drawn a sceptical response from Wout van Aert earlier in the week, and Pogacar did not hide that he had heard the Belgian's comments.
"It is normal preparation for a race like this," Pogacar said. "Some teams do it before the race, some teams do it the week before. We did it two days after Flanders because it suited our schedule. I do not think it gives us a huge advantage — every team has been doing recons on these sectors for months. But it shows we take the race seriously, and for me it was also about riding the cobbles when I was still fatigued, because on Sunday I will also be fatigued after a long race."
On the equipment front, Pogacar confirmed he would be using the 35mm Continental GP5000 S TR tyres at lower-than-standard pressures that have dominated much of the pre-race tactical chatter. He joked that the exact pressures would remain a team secret, but acknowledged that the team had spent "many hours with the data people" simulating scenarios for both wet and dry conditions. The latest forecast suggests the cobbles will be mostly dry on Sunday, though a 32 per cent chance of overnight rain still gives tyre choices a last-minute element of jeopardy.
Pogacar was also quick to identify his biggest threats. Mathieu van der Poel, of course, remains the defending champion chasing a fourth consecutive victory and a historical equalling of the all-time record. "Mathieu is still the benchmark here," Pogacar said. "He has won three times and he knows everything about this race. You have to respect that." He named Filippo Ganna, Mads Pedersen and Van Aert as the other riders he expected to shape the race, and crucially refused to dismiss his own young team-mate Vermeersch, whom he described as "our secret weapon — only he is not really a secret anymore."
The press conference ended as it began, with Pogacar in good spirits. Asked what he would do if he won Sunday and became only the fourth rider in history to complete the full set of five Monuments, the Slovenian paused, looked at the ceiling, and finally answered: "I would go home, eat a very big dinner with my family, and then start thinking about the Giro." If the pressure really is low, then so are the margins he is willing to give his rivals. Paris-Roubaix has never been this obsessively prepared for — and yet rarely has a favourite approached the start line with so much apparent calm.