In 2024, Tadej Pogačar seemed to win one-day races at will. At Strade Bianche, he said he'd attack 82km from the finish, and he did, and he won. At the World Championships, he was away alone for 100km. At Il Lombardia, it was a comparatively modest 48km, but a dominant solo win all the same. Nothing seemed to stand in his way.
This year, however, that ability to just ride away hasn't seemed to come quite so easily to the Slovenian. At Strade Bianche, he of course won, but he did it bruised and bloodied, after crashing uncharacteristically. Milan-San Remo saw him try, try and fail to shake Mathieu van der Poel, and ultimately cede victory to the Dutchman.
On Sunday, at the Tour of Flanders, Pogačar's plan was to attack on the second ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, and ideally go alone. But that didn't work, neither did the next acceleration, nor the next. It wasn't until the final time up the Kwaremont, with 18km to go, that a move finally stuck. Cutting it close, by Pogačar's standards.
"The guys were so strong the first time I attacked, and then many climbs after as well," the Slovenian said after the race, which saw Van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen clinging to his wheel on several occasions.
"It was really tough one to figure out if I can do it, but I just had to try every climb to do my best and to make this race hard and try to give it all on the last time Kwaremont, and it worked."
In other races, Pogačar's planned attack often works, and he knows pretty quickly that he's done what he needs to win, and then can spend sometimes two hours sure of that fact. On Sunday afternoon, even when he put in what would be the winning attack, he didn't know if he was going to be able to do it.
"I was not certain until I came out and onto the main road [after the Kwaremont] and saw that nobody was behind me," he said of his move that eventually stuck.
"Wout was a little bit before already losing the wheel, and also Mads, but Mathieu was super strong. I was really not certain because I could also run out of energy at that moment, but I didn't give up. I knew what I had to do and tried to do it as best [as possible]."
As well as the strength of his rivals, Pogačar's journey to a second Flanders victory was far from perfect, with three of his key teammates crashing at various points, meaning UAE Team Emirates-XRG had to adapt on the fly to get him into position.
"It was a plan to make a hard race, to attack the second time on Kwaremont, so we did the plan, we executed it good. More or less [everything went to plan]. Nothing went perfect but in the end we managed to pull it off," he said.
"In these kind of races, nothing goes perfect, also Mathieu had a crash. I'm really happy with the team, to be in this team is a dream come true, and I enjoy so much racing with them, and they give more than 100 per cent for today's plan. Sadly we lost Jonny and Tim in the crash, and Florian was chasing back the whole race, so it didn't go perfectly but in the end, because everybody gave so much, it worked.
"So I have to say thanks to everybody. Mikel did a phenomenal job today, most people don't realise how good he was today. Also the young boy Morgado is impressive, he's going to be a big champion, he is already. Also Nils and Florian did a perfect job, everybody. I cannot say enough big thank you to my teammates."
Of course, a long, solo win can appear more dominant, and thus perhaps more special, but as Pogačar spoke to the press on Sunday evening, it was clear that this hard-fought victory, helped by all of his team, meant something extra to him.
"Really big," he said of the win. "It's hard to describe how big this victory is, and how much it means to me."
Rather than lament the strength of a rider like Van der Poel, and how hard he was to shake on the cobbled Flemish climbs, Pogačar – once he'd won – clearly took some enjoyment in getting to race against such stiff, level-raising competition.
"I think we have a really nice generation of cyclists. The bunch, the top competitors, all the guys, I like to race against them," he said. "They are big champions, good guys. Today was amazing because of them, because of the fans, and because of my team."
Next up, Pogačar will take on his first-ever Paris-Roubaix, as he attempts to pull off the Flanders-Roubaix double, following in the footsteps of Van der Poel in 2024. The Hell of the North is a totally different beast – plus the Slovenian has never even started it – but this Flanders win is certainly a boost.
"It's totally different today than Sunday, but for sure today gives me confidence for Roubaix, I can see that I have good legs and good shape, so I'm looking forward to Sunday," he said.
"But we also have a super strong team, two guys were already second in this race, and it's my first time there, so we have a good team composition, we can do some great racing and I'm really looking forward for this challenge."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our 2025 Spring Classics coverage. Don't miss any of the breaking news, reports, and analysis from all the Cobbled Classics from Opening Weekend to Paris-Roubaix. Find out more
