Tadej Pogacar has no limit in one-day races, can challenge for all five Monuments – Adam Blythe

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) has no limit in one-day races, claims Eurosport expert Adam Blythe, who tipped the Slovenian to challenge for all five Monuments during his career.

The two-time Tour de France champion has enjoyed a stellar start to 2023, claiming three stages as he took the overall crown at Vuelta a Andalucia last week and also won Jaen Paraiso Interior on his season debut.

He heads into the new road season chasing revenge, having relinquished the Tour title to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and finished fourth in a two-horse race at the Tour of Flanders following a tactical calamity.

Before the 24-year-old turns his attention to the yellow jersey in France, he will attack the spring Classics and look to add to an already enviable palmarès.

And when asked what Pogacar’s ceiling was in the Classics, Blythe replied: “I don’t think he has one, to be honest.

“I think he’ll want to come back to Flanders this year and prove a point. He did an amazing ride last year, then bad tactics let him down. So I think he’ll just want to come back and dominate it like he did last year.

“The one-day races suit him as a rider.”

Cycling’s five Monuments – Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia – are widely considered the most prestigious one-day races outside the Olympics and World Championships.

Pogacar has already ticked off two: Liege-Bastogne Liege (2021) and Il Lombardia (2021 and 2022).

He was set for a sprint showdown with Mathieu van der Poel in Flanders last year when the pair dallied, inviting Dylan van Baarle and Valentin Madouas back into the frame as Pogacar somehow contrived to finish off the podium.

He also boasts a top-five finish at Milan-San Remo, with only Paris-Roubaix’s chaotic cobbles missing from his Monument starts.

Blythe believes Pogacar has the talent to complete the set – a feat only pulled off by three riders, Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck – but admits Hell of the North poses the biggest problem due to the risk involved.

“Racing is so focused on one part of the season and his is obviously the Tour de France,” said Blythe.

“So everything is around that and I think for Pogacar going to Paris-Roubaix is such a gamble – crashing, not crashing.

“Imagine dedicating his early part of the season to Roubaix and then something happening that could also affect his Tour de France if he crashed badly…

“So I think yes, he can win Paris-Roubaix in future, but I guess if he can win the Tour de France again, he’s got to do that. So that’ll be the big focus.

“I think once he’s accepted what he wants to do at the Tour de France and says, ‘right I’m going to try and win some Classics and Monuments’ then I think the focus will change. I think he can do it and win all five, but not for a few years yet.”

Pogacar’s aura was cracked by Jumbo-Visma at the Tour last summer when Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic, aided by Wout van Aert, launched an incredible GC assault.

Vingegaard and Roglic took it in turns to accelerate clear on an iconic Stage 11, forcing Pogacar to close each move and expend energy. The moment he latched back on, the other Jumbo rider went over the top – and so the game repeated.

So irritated was Pogacar at the barrage, that he dropped his own attack – a decision that appeared naïve when he later cracked on the final climb as his hopes for a third straight yellow jersey unravelled.

Blythe hopes that the episode will not prompt Pogacar to relax his attacking insists, but said it might now be a case of doing what he needs to do at Grand Tours, rather than what he wants to do.

“I think he’s just very much an attacker, he’s a racer. And I don’t want to change that,” he said.

“I think it’s just the calculation of it, when to attack, and he’s never had a challenge like that before. So he’s not really been used to it, he’s not really been in that situation where he’s been put under that much pressure.

“So for him, that’s new, and ultimately it will just be a learning curve for him to say, ‘right, well, I can change that if that happens again’ and vice versa.

“But I think there’s one thing about him that nobody wants to see change, and that’s almost dulling down a little bit. We like the attacking side, we like the unpredictability of it.

“I just think things now will be a lot more calculated with him, in terms of what he does when he needs to, rather than when he wants to.”

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