Whilst he didn’t race at Amstel Gold or La Flèche Wallonne, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has been keeping up to date with the Ardennes Classics, and he’s ready to be challenged from all angles as he looks for a fourth victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the former in a two-up sprint and young French superstar Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) the latter, setting the third fastest time up the Mur de Huy in the process. Pogačar has recognised them as his biggest threats, but he’s taking nothing for granted heading into just his fifth race day of 2026.
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An awful lot is expected of the 19-year-old Frenchman for Sunday and the long-term. Pogačar is certainly taking him seriously.
“I think Paul Seixas showed magnificent form until now, and I think he’s ready for tomorrow,” he told CyclingProNet at the team presentation in Liège on Saturday.
Unlike at Roubaix and Flanders, where, despite obviously being among the very best riders, he is on unfavoured cobbled territory, Pogačar is back in the hills tomorrow at Liège.
He’s won the past two editions in absolute dominant fashion, so anything outside of victory would be a shock, even in the face of elite rivalry, but his chilled approach to tactics tells you he knows exactly what is required.
“I feel pretty good. I’ve recovered, and I’m ready to try the climbs tomorrow. The approach is like every year – yesterday was a nice recon, good last training, and today was a nice easy ride with some coffee,” said Pogačar.
“Tomorrow is all in, we have a good team, and it’s a hard field of competitors, but we are motivated, and we go like this to the race.
“We haven’t talked too much about the tactics for tomorrow, but anyway, there is not too much to talk about. It’s a long and tiring race, so you need to have good legs and a good team to support you, so that is the main goal for tomorrow.”
Several of the questions posed to Pogačar and his rivals as they spoke in Liège’s Place Saint-Lampert on Saturday were about the slight changes to the route, with more climbing added to the middle section.
Racing could well be blown up early by one of the top teams, but the key climbs up the Côte de la Redoute, Côte des Forges and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons in the last 40km are still expected to decide the Monument Classic.
“In this race, last year was already hard; this year it’s going to be the same, more or less. It’s always about the fatigue in the legs in the end, so I don’t think it changes too much. We’ll see tomorrow if it has any impact,” he said.
“It’s quite a different race tomorrow compared to Roubaix, but in the end, it’s a very tiring race, just like Roubaix, so in that sense it’s pretty similar, you need to be good in endurance for six hours plus, and I think here we just add some more climbing, let’s see.”
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