Tadej Pogačar got the biggest applause on the podium in Compiègne at the Paris-Roubaix team presentation on Saturday afternoon, the French crowd hoping he can light-up the race like has done so often at other races during his distinguished career.
Pogačar is making his professional Paris-Roubaix debut on Sunday. He raced the Junior Paris-Roubaix twice and has raced on the French pave during the Tour de France, but taking on all the 259km of Paris-Roubaix, 55km on cobbles, is another matter.
The UAE Team Emirates rider admitted he was feeling slightly nervous but there was no fear of crashing on the cobbles or racing for victory.
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"I'm always a bit nervous before a race," Pogačar admitted. "Pais-Roubaix is a special race, one of the most beautiful and one of the toughest races in the world.
"There's some nerves going around but bad luck can happen at any bad moment. We shouldn't think too much about it. We have a strong guy who can win, we should just go for it.
"Every race is dangerous. Here there's more chance to break your bike and crash. High-speed crashes are possible in every race and they're the scariest, so here, we should just go for it.
"It's going to be a fantastic day for me. There's a lot going through my mind but I'm not stressed because I'm here with a fantastic team," he added.
Pogačar often launches long-range solo attacks in the Classics but even he has to adopt his tactics to beat rivals of the calibre of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
2023 and 2024 winner Van der Poel is arguably Pogačar's biggest rival.
"Mathieu might have a bit of an advantage over me here in Roubaix, but I have a strong team and maybe we can 'break' him and try to win ourselves,"Pogačar said on stage during the team presentation, perhaps with a sense of provocation.
Pogačar knows he is unlikely to win a small group sprint in the Roubaix velodrome so has to distance his rivals somewhere on the final toughest sectors of cobbles.
"This is a different race. It's a long and hard race and the legs will matter but a lot of guys can go for victory. You can't focus on one guy," he suggested.
"You can speak all day about tactics and the situations that can happen in this race. There can be so much bad luck and anything can happen. It's really hard to predict the plans for how it should go. The important thing is that you should never give up until the finish line in this race.
"We're here to win as a team. We have very strong riders, we'll try and give everything. Our motivation is high, the guys are ready, me too. W'ell try to fight for the win."
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