Tadej Pogačar has won three of cycling's five Monuments and his hope of adding one more appears to be significantly increased after the reigning World Champion set Strava course records on three sectors of Paris-Roubaix's pavé on Wednesday.
Pogačar arrived in Belgium on Tuesday ahead of the Tour of Flanders, but rather than warm up by racing Dwars door Vlaanderen, as did Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen, he travelled to Troisville, France, to do a reconnaissance on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix.
During his 213-kilometre ride, Pogačar powered across almost all 30 sectors of the 2025 Paris-Roubaix route. While he cruised through the Arenberg sector well behind the record from last year's race, he set Strava records on the Auchy les Orchies and Mons en Pévèle sectors in quick succession.
On the Orchies sector, he went six seconds faster than the time set by Dylan van Baarle in the 2022 edition. Over Mons en Pévèle, he knocked two seconds off the previous top time set by Guillaume Van Keirsbulck in the 2019 race, while riding the Carrefour de l'Arbre and Gruson sectors, he was within one second of the time of Wout van Aert from the 2023 Paris-Roubaix.
His work wasn't done quite yet, however, as the Tour of Flanders is four days away. Rather than ride into Roubaix, Pogačar skipped across the border to nearby West Flanders and rode over the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg without going too deep before settling back in Waregem to rest up for Sunday.
Pogačar was originally not scheduled to compete in Paris-Roubaix, as his team felt it was risky with the Tour de France a major goal, but after finishing third in Milan-San Remo, he decided to confirm rampant speculation and race the Hell of the North.
On Pogačar's Strava post, he revealed some new merchandise in collaboration with cycling artist Jorge Larco, known as Fette on social media, with a drawing of him standing in his rainbow jersey with one of the goats the organisation used to clean up the cobbles of the Arenberg forest. T-shirts of the drawing are available for sale on Pogačar's website.
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