What Tadej Pogačar's final Paris-Roubaix recon reveals about possible team strategy

Tadej Pogačar enjoyed his final taste of the Paris-Roubaix cobbles during a recon ride on Friday before he faces his professional debut in the Hell of the North on Sunday.

The Slovenian and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates covered the final 90km of the Paris-Roubaix route and Cyclingnews spent Friday morning chasing Tadej across the famous cobbled sectors and until the Roubaix velodrome. We published a series of videos on our Instagram, X and TikTok accounts.

"We'd planned a shorter final recon ride but Tadej wanted to do a bit more," said directeur sportif Fabio Baldato, who raced Paris-Roubaix twelve times during his career, finishing second in 1994.

"It was about studying the conditions and studying the cobbled sectors, so the riders know the key moments of the race," Baldato explained to Cyclingnews and L'Equipe.

"The race radio doesn't always work and so the more often you ride the route, the more you see the key points and you also remember the difficult sectors of pavé."  

Pogačar raced the Junior edition of Paris-Roubaix twice and experienced the pain of racing on the pavé during the 2022 Tour de France. He decided to ride Paris-Roubaix after an improvised recon with teammate Tim Wellens in February. He then returned for another recon before racing and winning the Tour of Flanders.

Friday's recon was about confirming final tyre pressure for what is now expected to be a dry race, testing the team's strategy for protecting and guiding Pogačar in the early sectors of pave and a final look at the worst sectors.  

Cyclingnews arrived in Roubaix on Thursday and dashed to near the entrance of the Forest of Arenberg on Friday morning after the team shared their recon plans.

Dozens of fans and cyclists gathered at the entrance to the Trouée d'Arenberg but the UAE team bus was parked a kilometre away. A small crowd soon gathered there as team mechanics made sure the riders' bikes had the correct tyre pressures.

Senior Cyclingnews Tech Writer Will Jones quickly shot a photo gallery of Pogačar's special white Colnago V4Rs bike fitted with 32mm tyres and the black bikes of his teammates.

Florian Vermeersch and Tim Wellens were first off the bus, immediately attracting a small crowd and scrum of television cameras that blocked the country road.

"It's time to start work," Wellens shouted into the bus, jokingly chastising his teammates.

Pogačar and his other teammates soon appeared for the rollout, team staff trying to fight off the fans desperate for a glimpse of Pogačar, a selfie or an autograph.

The world champion was more interested in riding and soon set off for what would be a three-hour, nearly 90km ride. Before diving into the Forest of Arenberg, Pogačar and his teammates checked out the new chicane designed to slow the riders before the iconic sector.

After that, they blasted over the final 19 sectors of cobbles on the road scissors northern France to the Roubaix Velodrome.

On the Wallers to Hélesmes sector, Pogačar sat on Nils Politt's wheel, while later Cyclingnews saw him following Mikkel Bjerg and then Vermeersch as they seemed to test a high-speed train and lead out.

A tractor slowed their progress during sector 16 from Warlaing to Brillon but their high-speed ride soon began again, with the team car driven by Baldato and Marcato, often struggling to stay with them.

By the time they reached the key Carrefour de l'Arbre sector, with just 17km to race, only Vermeersch and Morgado were still with Pogačar. At the Roubaix velodrome, some riders arrived before Pogačar and disappeared onto the team bus for a shower.

The Pogačar group arrived 15 minutes later and completed several laps of the iconic outdoor velodrome to get a taste of what they could experience on Sunday afternoon.

To win Paris-Roubaix, Pogačar perhaps knows he has to finish in the velodrome alone. He has little chance of victory in a sprint against the likes of Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert and Filippo Ganna.  

The UAE team posted several updates on social media during the recon, including one optimistic weather update: "Weather update from the cobbles of #ParisRoubaix: It is sunny with a chance of rainbows." they posted.

At the UAE bus parked outside the Roubaix Velodrome area, Pogačar quickly disappeared to avoid the growing crowd. The best the fans could hope for was a bidon the riders had used during the recon. It was still a highly desired prize.

Baldato spoke to Cyclingnews and other local media about the recon.

"Everything went well. When we did the first recon in February he tried the cobbles in the rain and cold, with puddles and mud. This time it was dry and dusty. Hopefully, some rain on Saturday night will reduce the dust," the Italian explained.

"Tadej's seen the route three times now and he showed at the Tour of Flanders how he can handle a hard race and race from the front.

"He's watched videos of previous editions of Paris-Roubaix, and wanted to do the recons, so he knows what to expect - even victory on his debut.

"I think he can win it," Baldato admitted when asked by Cyclingnews.

"Of course, it's his first Paris-Roubaix but we've all seen what Tadej is capable of doing. With him, anything is possible."

"There are no regrets from him or the team about riding Paris-Roubaix. After we won the Tour of Flanders, the pressure is off. Tadej can just enjoy Paris-Roubaix and race to win."

Pogačar, Baldato and UAE surely have a race strategy ready and know where they will go on the attack. They obviously refused to reveal their plans.

"We'll see where we attack…" Baldato said.

"You can plan a tactic for Paris-Roubaix and have an idea where you turn the pace. But it's also a race where you have to adjust your tactics based on what happens and what your rivals do.

"That's what we did last week at the Tour of Flanders after we lost some riders early on due to the crash, we adapted our plan and Tadej still pulled it off."

Pogačar was dominant at the Tour of Flanders, attacking on the final climb of the Oude Kwaremont and then winning alone. However, Paris-Roubaix is a very different, very open race. There are no climbs but 55.3 kilometres of cobbles during the 259.2km race.

Pogačar is a natural favourite but just like at Milan-San Remo, that does not mean he will win.

"For sure we've got more rivals at Paris-Roubaix. There aren't the climbs like in Flanders and so the race is wide open," Baldato said.

"Riders like Jasper Philipsen and Wout Van Aert will be big rivals alongside Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen and Filippo Ganna.

"There are some strong teams like Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike who can have several riders up there in the final but we've got a strong team and will back Tadej all the way.

"We're ready to race, now we can't wait until Sunday."

Later in the day, Mathieu van der Poel and his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates, TotalEnergues, Soudal-QuickStep, Groupama-FDJ and other teams also rode many of the key sectors of cobbles.

Alpecin-Deceuninck's Jonas Rickaert crashed on the dust on a corner and van der Poel suffered a puncture, reminding everyone of the dangers of raving on the cobbles.

Lidl-Trek, Ineos Grenadiers, Intermarche-Wanty and Visma-Lease a Bike did their recon rides on Thursday before heading to hotels near Paris and Compiegne for Saturday's team presentation.

Cyclingnews also saw the women's UAE Team ADQ doing a final recon before the women's race on Saturday, while several of the Under 23 men's teams were out on the cobbles before they raced on Sunday morning.