After big Pogi show in Tour of Flanders, focus shifts to Roubaix: "I'm ready for the challenge"

Pogacar arrived in Oudenaarde with a comfortable lead. In retrospect, he was particularly pleased with how he and his team handled setbacks. A number of his teammates had already dropped out early on. "The goal was to win, but it's difficult to realize that," he said in the flash interview. "I succeeded, and I couldn't be prouder of the team and how we raced, even though we had bad luck. But everything fell into place, and I'm so happy I could win this race in this jersey."

The plan was to copy and paste: the Oude Kwaremont is the longest climb in the Tour of Flanders, and the Slovenian knew that this was where he had the best chance of making the difference. "The plan was to go for it. We stuck to that plan, even though a few of us crashed. But we made it, stuck to the plan, and I got the job done." Mathieu van der Poel had to let his main competitor go on the second-to-last climb of the day: he ended up in third place.

The Dutch rider was involved in a crash earlier in the day, involving many riders from UAE Team Emirates. "There was a big crash on the main road. Matthews also crashed there, but we lost Tim (Wellens, ed.), Johnny (Narvaéz), and Florian (Vermeersch). But he managed to return and be back for the lead-out on the Oude Kwaremont. Hats off to him; we never gave up. Everyone went above and beyond to carry out the plan, and even with the bad luck, everything went perfectly."

With his dominant victory in the Tour of Flanders, Pogacar will again be high on the favorites list for Paris-Roubaix, even though he has never started in the Hell of the North. "It's a different race, but I am ready for the challenge. I will do my best; I know Flanders suits me better. But you never know. Roubaix is also a very tough race, and I think I should go for it with the form I'm in now."