Tadej Pogačar switches from the cobbles to the Ardennes côtes and climbs this weekend, with Sunday's Amstel Gold Race his goal before Wednesday's La Flèche Wallonne and then next Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
The world champion has kept a low profile as he recovered from the pain of riding Paris-Roubaix and his defeat to Mathieu van der Poel but will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the Limburg region of the Netherlands. Pogačar last raced the Amstel Gold race in 2023, when he won it after going on the attack with 83km to race.
Mathieu van der Poel has ended his Classics campaign but Pogačar faces Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) as the Belgian returns from his winter crash and shoulder injury.
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"We leave the cobbled Classics with our heads high, I think we can be happy with what we did there and there were some great battles on the road," Pogačar said, when UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed their line-up for the race.
“The Ardennes races will be a new challenge. They are three hard one-day races packed into a week but I feel we have the team to be able to challenge in each of them. But we will take it one race at a time starting with Amstel Gold and go from there. In that race I have some great memories from two years ago when I managed to win, let’s see what’s possible this year."
UAE Team Emirates-XRG have selected a team of climbers and experienced Classics riders to back Pogačar. The once traditional Cauberg finish returns for 2025 and seems ideal for Pogačar though there is a 2.5km flat road from the top to the finish line.
The seven riders squad includes Tim Wellens, Jhonatan Narváez, Domen Novak, Pavel Sivakov, Felix Großschartner and the USA's Brandon McNulty.
Many of those riders will also race Friday's De Brabantse Pijl but Pogačar will only arrive in the Ardennes for Sunday's race. Gen Z development team riders Duarte Merivoet and Gibbe Staes complete UAE Team Emirates-XRG line-up for De Brabantse Pijl, with Narváez and António Morgado possible leaders.
