(Arenberg) Tadej Pogacar has “the physical and the mental to win Paris-Roubaix” one day, assured Tuesday the director of the “Queen of the classics” Thierry Gouvenou, on the sidelines of the recognition of the 2023 course.
Winner of the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, the Slovenian will not participate again this year in Paris-Roubaix which will take place on Sunday. If he intends to discover the Hell of the North one day, he considers that he must first gain a little weight to be competitive on the classic cobbled road, promised first to the strong and the big rollers.
“I think he can more than make up for his lack of weight with his outstanding physical qualities and his will. Bernard Hinault wasn’t very heavy either and he won Paris-Roubaix,” commented Thierry Gouvenou, still flabbergasted by “Pogacar’s attack on the Champs Élysées during the last stage of the Tour de France” in 2022.
“It shows an exceptional state of mind,” added Gouvenou. He has a real mind. In addition, he is a runner who is sensitive to the history of his sport as shown by his presence this year in Paris-Nice, the knife between his teeth. »
“And, he concluded jokingly, we will certainly not tell him that he has no right to come to Paris-Roubaix because he is too thin! »
Pogacar (66 kg for 1.76 m) became on Sunday the third rider in history to have won both the Tour de France (in 2020 and 2021) and the Tour of Flanders, joining the French Louison Bobet and the Belgian Eddy Merckx in this very exclusive club.
At only 24, he has already won three of the five Cycling Monuments, also counting Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2021 and the Tour of Lombardy in 2021 and 2022. He only has Milan-Sanremo left, where he finished fourth a month ago, and Paris-Roubaix to conquer.
Only one man has managed to win all five Monuments and the Tour de France: Eddy Merckx.
In the absence of the Slovenian on Sunday, Gouvenou hopes to see a duel at the top between the Belgian Wout Van Aert and the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel. “They got us used to big duels, but unfortunately not yet in Paris-Roubaix. I think they are also waiting for it because the years go by and they still haven’t put Paris-Roubaix on their list,” he said.