Tadej Pogačar will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the final races of his spring Classics campaign, with Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège his target for a ninth Monument victory. However UAE team manager Mauro Gianetti has tried to tame his rider's midweek ambitions by saying Pogačar doesn't need to attack 50km from the finish or even win Flèche Wallonne.
The Slovenian has won the UAE Tour, Strade Bianche, and the Tour of Flanders so far in 2025 but was forced to settle for runner-up spots at his two most recent outings at Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race. At Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the oldest of cycling's Monuments, he'll be aiming to recapture the title he won in 2021 and 2024, with fellow two-time winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) set to be his main rival.
Pogačar will be accompanied at Liège by Felix Großschartner, Vegard Stake Laengen, Brandon McNulty, Domen Novak, Pavel Sivakov, and Florian Vermeersch.
"I've enjoyed this Classics campaign a lot so far. I came into this period with a lot of goals and ambitions and there are still two left, with the biggest of them next Sunday," Pogačar said.
"The most suited race for me is probably Liège so I'm really looking forward to it in particular, but every race is important."
On Wednesday, Pogačar will be hoping to reclaim the Flèche Wallonne title he won in 2023, where he beat Amstel Gold Race winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) to the win atop the Mur de Huy. Großschartner, Stake Laengen, McNulty, Novak, and Sivakov will also race Flèche along with Swiss talent Jan Christen.
Speaking to the Belgian RTBF podcast 'On connaît nos classiques', UAE team CEO Mauro Gianetti said that racing Flèche is necessary for Pogačar to be ready for Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Swiss team manager is not worried about a build-up of fatigue ahead of the weekend after Pogačar's intense spring Classics campaign.
"He still needs a strong race on Wednesday or Thursday to be completely ready for Liège-Bastogne-Liège. So yes, he will ride La Flèche Wallonne," Gianetti said, according to WielerFlits.
"But he doesn't have to make the race again from 50km from the finish or necessarily win. He rides because he wants to, but it's not a must. We also have other riders in the team who are suitable for a race like La Flèche Wallonne.
"We're not worried, because we knew that recovering from the fatigue after Paris-Roubaix would be the hardest part. But in the end we saw in Amstel Gold Race that his form was good."
Gianetti pointed out that the world champion will have completed just 13 days of racing heading into Liège, with just four – Flanders, Roubaix, Amstel, and Flèche – having come this month.
"After Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tadej will have had 13 days of racing under his belt since the start of the season.
"They are all big races, of course, races that he always rides in his own way – with spectacle and dedication. But La Flèche Wallonne simply fits well into the programme."
