Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will decide and reveal in the next few days if the Slovenian will ride Paris-Roubaix, with the Hell of the North offering Pogačar the ultimate chance for revenge after his Milan-San Remo defeat.
Pogačar was tight-lipped as he tried to overcome the disappointment of his Milan-San Remo defeat but will soon have to make a final decision.
"I can't say anything about that," he said briefly during one post-race interview.
His team manager Mauro Gianetti was a little more forthcoming when asked by Cyclingnews, somewhat contradicting a comment from sports manager Joxean Matxin who had said that a decision had been made but not yet announced.
"The goal was to ride Milan-San Remo and then we'd calmly make a decision on Paris-Roubaix and look to the future," Gianetti said.
"In the next two or three days we'll decide."
Pogačar fuelled speculation that he wanted to ride Paris-Roubaix when he did a surprise recon on the cobbles of northern France in early February. He also teased about riding in a recent French radio interview.
"There's a big chance that I'm at the start. I cannot say whether this year or next year, but there is always a chance, so let's see and let's be a little bit surprised," he told RMC's show Bartoli Time.
Pogačar has won Il Lombardia, the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege and will, surely, win Milan-San Remo one day, leaving just Paris-Roubaix to complete the set.
However, Gianetti and others in the Emirati team are worried that the possibility of Pogačar crashing during Paris-Roubaix and compromising his preparation for the Tour de France, his big goal of 2025, is too big of a risk to take. Pogačar's crash at Strade Bianche only raised concerns.
"I keep telling him that he needs to wait before doing it, to not take risks, because he could really get hurt," Gianetti said after Strade Bianche.
"A bad crash could jeopardize the Tour de France and maybe even the whole season. I hope that he doesn’t do it this year, and I’ll tell him once again: there is still time in his career for him to ride Paris-Roubaix."
However it seems that if Pogačar decides he wants to race Paris-Roubaix, then nobody in the team can or will challenge his decision.
Several well-informed people have claimed that Pogačar will ultimately line-up in Compiègne on Sunday 13th April for another battle with Mathieu van der Poel.
Their first revenge match after Milan-San Remo will come at the Tour of Flanders in two weeks time, meaning that if Pogačar were to win in Oudenaarde, Paris-Roubaix could become the deciding race between the two in this year's Spring Classics campaign.
