Pogacar's Tour of Flanders Strava Upload Briefly Flagged After He Bags Record-Breaking KOMs on the Kwaremont, Paterberg and Koppenberg
Tadej Pogacar was so fast during his dominant Tour of Flanders victory on Sunday that even Strava's algorithms struggled to believe it. The Slovenian's ride data was briefly flagged for review on the platform after he set new fastest-ever times on several of Flanders' most iconic climbs, including the verified Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg and Koppenberg segments.
The world champion's Strava upload from the 260-kilometre Monument showed a string of gold crowns — the King of the Mountain markers that denote the all-time fastest time on a segment. Pogacar claimed KOMs on the Oude Kruisberg, the Oude Kwaremont cobbles segment and the Koppenberg, times so far outside the existing records that Strava's automated review system initially flagged the activity for potential guideline violations.
The flag was removed within hours and all of Pogacar's times have since been accepted to the permanent leaderboards, but the brief flagging underlines just how extraordinary the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader's performance was. In an era when professional riders routinely top Strava leaderboards after Monuments, it takes something truly exceptional for the platform's algorithms to question whether the data is genuine.
The Kwaremont KOM is perhaps the most symbolic. It was on the final ascent of the 2.2-kilometre cobbled climb that Pogacar launched the attack that decided the race, riding away from Mathieu van der Poel despite the Dutchman producing an estimated 650 watts in pursuit. Van der Poel himself set the second-fastest time ever recorded on the segment — and was still dropped. "I was riding 650 watts and still couldn't follow him," Van der Poel said after the race, a quote that has since gone viral across cycling social media.
Pogacar's Koppenberg time is also remarkable. The brutally steep cobbled climb, averaging 11.6% with sections touching 22%, is typically a segment where power-to-weight ratio matters more than raw wattage. The Slovenian's new KOM suggests he attacked the Koppenberg with an intensity that exceeded even his own race-winning efforts in previous editions.
This is not the first time Pogacar's Strava data has caused a stir. After winning Strade Bianche in March, his upload showed similarly eye-popping numbers on the white gravel roads of Tuscany. The pattern is consistent: the 27-year-old is not just winning cycling's biggest races in 2026, he is doing so at speeds that rewrite the historical record of what is possible on these courses.
With Paris-Roubaix now just five days away, the Strava data adds another layer to the pre-race narrative. If Pogacar can produce this level of performance on the cobbled climbs of Flanders, the flat, attritional cobbles of northern France present a fascinating tactical puzzle. The question for Van der Poel, Wout van Aert and the rest of the Paris-Roubaix field is simple: how do you beat a rider who is literally breaking the records of what cycling's greatest courses can withstand?