Matthieu van der Poel doesn’t think less of Tadej Pogacar: “If he went to Roubaix, he would be one of the favorites.”

Two years in a row, Mathieu van der Poel has won Paris-Roubaix. This spring, he should be one of the main favorites again, along with Wout van Aert and a few other very good riders. Tadej Pogacar might change his mind, but he shouldn’t be in the “Hell of the North” right now. The Dutchman is sure he can win it when he does.

“He will definitely give it a shot. “He might not try to win it next year, but I’m sure he will at some point,” van der Poel told CyclingWeekly. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that he is very strong. He proved it once on the cobblestones of the Tour stage. If he went to Roubaix, he would be one of the favorites.

Van der Poel is in Spain getting ready for the start of his cyclocross season. He is not as good as the World Champion on most terrains, but he can beat him in flat cobbled races and has more palmarès. This spring, Van der Poel did very well and won both cobbled landmarks. He has also been able to win races without the Slovenian. That won’t happen in Flanders next year, and van der Poel is sure that Pogacar would also be in the running for the win in Roubaix.

“Tadej is very unique, of course. Most of the time, the same winners show up at the Monuments. Only Sanremo has a bit more variety. “But it’s not easy to win these kinds of races,” says van der Poel. But in a race where luck and strategy play a big role, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider made the best choices most of the time in 2023 and 2024, which helped him win both times.

A big part of van der Poel’s success and stability over the last two seasons has been that he hasn’t been sick or hurt. He accomplished a lot of that after going to Spain, where he not only improved his health but also made big steps forward in his winter training.

“I used to be much more on Zwift but I spend a lot of time in Spain now. “To be honest, I ride on Zwift almost every day when I’m in Belgium in the winter,” he says. “I prefer to jump on that than to go out in the bad weather and especially with cyclocross it is a nice combination” .

He can change how things are set up and do what he wants in Spain instead of what the weather lets him do. “You can train for cyclocross in the afternoon and then ride for an hour. It works well together.” “But you don’t need it very often down here in Spain,” he said.