Welcome to Tweets of the Week, our none-too-serious seven-day delve into the world of cycling on social media.
Milan-San Remo feels like an age ago, right? Already, we're at that time of the year where the races tot up fast. One Classic bleeds into the next (literally, in Edward Theuns's case). As this past week has shown, a lot can happen in seven days in cycling. Especially if you're Tadej Pogačar.
The world champion, as he so often does, returns as a protagonist again in our weekly social media round-up. First there was San Remo, where he showed himself fallible, and a little bit confused about podium procedure when he doesn't come first. So used to winning is the Slovenian, that he didn't know which step belonged to third place. It took Vincenzo Nibali to politely point him in the right direction.
Then came the Paris-Roubaix announcement, and the badly-kept secret that Pogačar will make his debut at the Hell of the North next month. Why the delay in making the news public? We all saw him training on the Trouée d'Arenberg. Was UAE Team Emirates XRG planning an exciting release? Not quite.
The team buried the big reveal at the bottom of a website entry titled 'UAE Team Emirates-XRG announce teams for E3 Saxo Classic & Gent-Wevelgem'. If you were hoping for confetti cannons, there wouldn't be any.
I do wonder why UAE Team Emirates XRG didn't go big on the announcement. Pogačar will be the first Tour de France winner to race the Monument since Bradley Wiggins in 2015, and the first reigning Tour champion to do so since Greg Lemond in 1991. That's more than three decades! It's exciting news.
I figure, deep down, the team bosses perhaps don't want their serial winner getting battered on the sharp, French cobbles. I wouldn't either if I were them. He's got another yellow jersey to win in a few months, after all.
Perhaps, too, they were worried about scaring his rivals. For the other riders, it may have come as tough news to take. I can only imagine the look on Wout van Aert's face when he found out the man who wins at will is going after the same prize as him.
Elsewhere this week, Lorena Wiebes becomes an anime character, Filippo Ganna is on the hunt, and Lidl-Trek take team announcements to the next level.
1. It's Tadej Pogačar's world and we're all just living in it
2. "Third place? Never heard of it."
3. Is Milan-San Remo going to elude Pogačar for his whole career? Not if he unleashes his hair tufts
4. It's a simple strategy, really
5. *Jaws theme plays*
6. I'd watch a Studio Ghibli film about Lorena Wiebes. It did always feel like My Neighbour Totoro was missing a sprint finish
7. It's been quite the career trajectory for Kristen Faulkner, who has gone from venture capitalist, to Olympic champion, and now bank robber
8. Carys Lloyd may be the youngest rider in the peloton this year, but she can track stand longer than most
9. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, may you win the Tour de France, Primož Roglič
Poor Rogla had so many crashes over the years that the organizers brought a priest on stage just for him. 🙏 The TDF victory is guaranteed, guys.#VoltaCatalunya104 pic.twitter.com/KokdpCSR3TMarch 27, 2025
10. Petition for all team announcements to come in supermarket receipt form
12. And finally, spare a thought over the weekend for Edward Theuns, who I imagine has screamed his way through every shower he has taken since his crash at Brugge-De Panne
