Tadej Pogačar returns to Paris-Roubaix in search of history for UAE Team Emirates-XRG

Three days out from the third Monument of the season, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is delighted to present its lineup for Paris-Roubaix, with Tadej Pogačar hoping to take a historic victory for the Emirati squad.

Already a winner of both Milano-Sanremo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen this season, Pogačar heads into Sunday’s race as the current title holder of four of the five great cycling Monuments. Were he to win on Sunday, he would become the first rider since Roger De Vlaeminck in 1979 to have won all five, totalling Milano-Sanremo, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia.

For Pogačar, Paris-Roubaix is the last Monument standing, and perhaps his ultimate test. It is a race once thought beyond the realms of reach for a rider that makes winning Grand Tours their bread and butter. In fact, last season, the Slovenian became the first reigning Tour de France champion to start Paris-Roubaix since Greg LeMond in 1991.

It had been a generation or two since a rider in Pogačar’s ilk even seriously contemplated taking on the challenge of the Hell of the North.

The Hell of the North. L’Enfer du Nord. A Sunday in Hell. Perhaps there are no words quite right to sum up Paris-Roubaix. Raced across the toughest cobblestones found in northern Europe, it is a race unlike any other, and has set Paris-Roubaix apart as the toughest one-day race on the entire calendar.

Such a fierce reputation did not faze Pogačar, who made his Roubaix debut for UAE Team Emirates-XRG in 2025, to much fanfare and intrigue. Eventually riding to second place behind the day’s winner, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Pogačar more than demonstrated his capabilities across cycling’s most imposing terrain.

It might have been even more for the UAE Team Emirates-XRG man, had he not misjudged a corner with 38.1km to go and hit the deck. From that point on, victory was all but assured for Van der Poel, who rode to his third victory in succession.

Prior to the fall, it had been Pogačar who had put the hurt on his opponents from afar, with the then-four-time Grand Tour winner going clear of the peloton alongside the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo of Van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen. Noting his numerical disadvantage, Pogačar kicked again inside the final 50km, dispatching Philipsen from the wheel.

Perhaps only the crash prevented what was expected to be a two-up showdown between Van der Poel and Pogačar in the Velodrome.

Ready to try and go one better this time out for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Pogačar will be back at the start line in Compiègne alongside his teammates Florian Vermeersch, Nils Politt, Mikkel Berg, Sebastián Molano, António Morgado, and Rui Oliveira.

Together, the team will be headed up from the cars by Sports Directors Fabio Baldato, Marco Marcato and Marco Marzano.

Speaking ahead of the race, Pogačar is eager to take his confidence from the Ronde van Vlaanderen into a second start at Paris-Roubaix this weekend.

Pogačar: “It’s no secret that Paris-Roubaix is one of the big goals for this part of the season. The few races I’ve done so far have gone perfectly so the motivation is high but the pressure is low.

“I’m going to enjoy it no matter what the result and I’m looking forward to a good weekend of racing. We have such a strong team with guys who have been on the podium here before so it’s not only me who is capable of a result.”

The 123rd edition of Paris-Roubaix will mark a fifth start at l’Enfer du Nord for Pogačar’s teammate, Vermeersch, with the Belgian scoring his best result to date on debut in 2021. That day, the then-22-year-old produced an exceptional performance in the first muddy Paris-Roubaix in a generation.

Heading into the velodrome alongside fellow debutants Sonny Colbrelli and Mathieu van der Poel, Vermeersch got the better of the latter (now a three-time champion), but was pipped to the victory by Colbrelli. It was a display that made the world sit up and take notice, with Vermeersch set to head into this weekend’s race as one of the faces to watch.

It is a marker he has earned through his fifth-place ride for UAE Team Emirates-XRG last season and his exceptional performances throughout this spring.

The 27-year-old has been at the forefront of racing right from the flag drop at Omloop Nieuwsblad. There, Vermeersch claimed third place after tearing the race to pieces on the Molenberg. This form continued through the spring, where another third place followed at the E3 Saxo Classic, with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider also proving instrumental to the Monument victories of teammate Pogačar at both Milano-Sanremo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

At the latter, Vermeersch once more detonated the action on the Molenberg and continued his effort to the finish in Oudenaarde to take a well-deserved seventh place. Fresh from signing a long-term contract extension with UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the Belgian will hope to prove just as influential on the result at this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix.

Vermeersch and Pogačar are not the only riders with an impressive history at Paris-Roubaix for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Indeed, their teammate Nils Politt placed fourth for the Emirati squad in 2024.

It is a race that suits the German to a tee, and he produced a career performance to take the runner-up spot at Paris-Roubaix back in 2019. That day, the tall rouleur was only bettered in a two-up sprint in the Roubaix Velodrome by Philippe Gilbert, with the Belgian taking victory in his fourth of cycling’s five Monument Classics.

Gilbert never did quite manage to join the exclusive club of three riders who have won all five Monuments in their career, but this is the task that has been set out in front of Pogačar.

In winning this year’s Milano-Sanremo, the Slovenian joined Gilbert with wins at four of the five, and now only Paris-Roubaix remains for Pogačar to sit alongside Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx, and Roger De Vlaeminck in the history books.

With victory at last weekend’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, the world champion became the first rider in history to win four Monuments in a row – dating back to last year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège – and with a win on Sunday, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider would be the title holder in all five Monuments concurrently.

Of course, a whole host of riders will aim to stand in Pogačar’s way this weekend, not least of which Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck. The Dutchman has won the past three editions of Paris-Roubaix and can equal the record of four victories at l’Enfer du Nord should he take an unprecedented fourth title in a row on Sunday.

Joining Van der Poel and Pogačar on the start line in Compiègne will be the likes of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), but it is the parcours as much as any opponent that makes Paris-Roubaix one of the most difficult tests of the cycling season.

Standing at 258.2km in length, Paris-Roubaix includes some 30 sectors of pavé, otherwise known as the infamous cobblestones. These sectors add up to make 54.8km of the race spent on the bone-rattling leftovers of 20th-century Europe. Amongst their number lay the notorious five-star sectors of the Trouée d’Arenberg, Mons-en-Pévèle and Carrefour de l’Arbre.

With each sector given a designated difficulty between 1-5 stars, the roadbook marks out these three sectors as the toughest of the day, and with good reason.

Falling with 95km to go to the finish, the Trouée d’Arenberg regularly marks the start of the Paris-Roubaix finale. It might sound like a long way to go, but anyone not in the right position at this stage of the race can count themselves out of the final podium. It is the most hotly anticipated moment of the race and as such, draws thousands of spectators to the Arenberg Forest each year.

Out of the Arenberg Trench, the challenges do not relent in Paris-Roubaix. Despite being known as a ‘pan-flat’ race, the five-star sector at Mons-en-Pévèle actually poses a difficult climb, especially given the dilapidated nature of the pavé. It was here that Pogačar surged to distance Philipsen and make it a two-man front group in last year’s race.

Further into the afternoon, Carrefour de l’Arbre marks the last real test of Paris-Roubaix, and those cobbles come to an end with just 14km to ride to the finish on the concrete banks of the Roubaix Velodrome. By this point, each rider will be at their limit, and any form of sprint in the aged structure can throw up any number of surprises.

Last year, Pogačar rode into the Roubaix Velodrome almost a minute ahead of his nearest competitors. Unfortunately for the Slovenian, the day’s winner Van der Poel had already crossed the line and celebrated his third victory in succession.

Both riders will be in search of their own history on Sunday, but between their strong competition and the nature of the pavé, they will have to go to hell and back to achieve it.