The rumours that the Slovenian might ride Roubaix are still going around, especially after his win on the gravel on Saturday, but I think it’s a crazy idea at this point in his career. When he and the team were talking about it I just thought “what are they talking about here?” The risk is so high in Roubaix, and for a rider who is at his prime to win another Tour de France and prove that last year wasn’t a fluke because of Jonas Vingegaard’s crash, it’s not a good idea to ride Roubaix.
This year, he has to confirm that his Tour win in 2024 was a true ride from him, not just because his rival was injured. and to do that he has to get everything right and not go to these crazy races. He's also meant to do Gent-Wevelgem, which in my experience is just crazy with the wind and the risks you have to take to fight and be in the front end of the race, which Pogačar always wants to do.
His program of one-day races and not much stage racing is good, because he’s shown that he doesn’t need to do lots of week-long races to get in shape for the Grand Tours, but Roubaix would be a step too far. It’s not a race for somebody who is meant to be focusing on the Tour de France.
Even though Strade showed his strength, it also proved just how risky these races can be, and the mistake he made was an amateur mistake. He shouldn’t try to go so hard on a descent, especially against a guy like Tom Pidcock. It’s like peeing into the wind. In the gravel sections too, if you’re Pogačar you don’t push it to the limit with Pidcock on your wheel, it’s on the uphills where he should have been trying to do the damage.
When I saw the crash, I thought maybe there was a bit of oil or diesel on the road, because you saw Pidcock kept a little bit more to the left, and showed off his bike handling skills by keeping cool when someone goes down in front of you, and that’s where the real advantage is. But there was no oil at all on the road – it was just a big mistake by Pogačar.
Pidcock could have taken advantage at this point, but I think it was the right decision to eventually wait for Pogačar. For the first kilometre or so he kept on moving, but it was 40km from the finish, so I imagine that when the director in the car saw that Pogačar was back riding and he hadn’t done any major damage, then they would have decided that the best decision was to knock it off and let him come back.
Pidcock said that waiting was a matter of respect, but it was a tactical one too. If he’d kept riding, he might have held Pogačar off for another 10km if he went full gas, but he’d then have paid a bigger price for that later on and still lost out to Pogačar. Once it was clear there was no major problem from the crash, Pogačar was always going to catch him, so there was no point trying to push on.
Pidcock and Pogačar came back together after the crash (Image credit: Getty Images)
When a rider wins solo from a long way out, and covered in blood, does that mean Strade is getting too difficult, or too dangerous? It’s really nothing new with the race organisers. Every organiser wants to make their race more difficult now, with the most gravel sectors, or the most cobbled climbs, but there is a limit. I think it’s something the UCI has to decide on, for the welfare of riders – not just in terms of crashes, but doping too, because riders are being pushed to their limit, and of course teams and riders making every race so hard doesn’t help the situation either.
It has to be the UCI that decides, because if teams have an issue or they don’t want to start, the big names might be able to say something, but the small teams who might be struggling to finish these races don’t really have a voice. They’re afraid to say something because the organisers might say “okay, next year, you don’t get a wildcard invitation”, and so issues aren’t raised.
What the Strade Bianche organisers are definitely getting right though is the women’s race. It was a really, really exciting race and a thrilling final, with Demi Vollering taking the win. I think that the way they have the races too, with the women’s race being before the men’s race, and we’ve seen how the women’s race has grown big time in the last few years. They had the team presentations all together as well, which I think is a great concept, and should be done that way.
Strade Bianche is definitely becoming one of the Monuments for men and women, and it will be pretty solid on that Monument list now.
Winning Strade for a third time was a great victory for Pogačar, but he has a big challenge coming up at Milan-San Remo. Looking at the last couple of years, it’s going to be very difficult for him to make a difference in the final. If he can do something, the only place to do it will be the Poggio. If you go away on the Cipressa with two or three guys, there’s always still a peloton of 30 to 40 guys at least who will be chasing you between the Cipressa and the Poggio, so the stay away from there is just not possible, you have to try something earlier.
What can Pogačar and UAE do though? They’ve tried going up the Poggio full gas and trying to put everyone in difficulty, but they don’t seem to be able to make it hard enough, because so many more riders are able to get over this sort of climb now, the sprinters as well as riders like Ganna, Van der Poel and Van Aert.
We’ve seen UAE push on at 100% and really set an infernal pace, but it’s just not possible to go any faster. So how do you get rid of the fast riders? Unless you get a really bad day where the weather conditions are horrible and everyone arrives at the Poggio fatigued and wet and cold, then it’s really not a possibility to get rid of enough people.
After San Remo, Pogačar is going to be up against some tough rivals. Pidcock, in particular, is going to be really interesting, because he’s in great shape and his morale is going to be sky-high, so I think we will see him pick up even more in the Classics. And then of course there’s all the usual Classics guys. Van Aert, Van der Poel, they’ll be all trying to beat Pogačar in the big races like Flanders and Roubaix, and there are loads of other strong riders in the mix too.
It’s very different from what a rider like Vingegaard is doing, but I think Pogačar’s current race plan of mainly Classics is going to work. Some GC riders do turn up and race some Classics to get a feel for them – some of the Giro contenders were at Strade ahead of the gravel stage in May – but with Vingegaard, there’s no point unless he thought he could win, why take the risk? He’s shown he can deal with gravel in the Tour, and if he thought he could win one of these Classics I’m sure he’d have a go, but right now it’s not worth the risk. Especially after last year, he’ll want to prepare for the Tour with as few risks as possible.
For Pogačar, I don’t think there’s any problem that he’s not racing a stage race until the Dauphiné, he’s still on a good track for the Tour in July. He’ll do specific training and altitude camps and these one-day races will keep him race fit, and as long as he avoids injury – by not taking risks in races like Roubaix – then it’s just a matter of topping his form up for the Tour de France.
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"King Kelly", the greatest Irish cyclist to have graced the peloton, brought the Emerald Isle to the fore alongside compatriot Stephen Roche in the 1980s. Points winner at the Tour de France four times, GC in the 1988 Vuelta, and a record-breaking seven consecutive wins at Paris-Nice feature during his glittering career – alongside double victories at Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
