Tadej Pogačar has been in this situation before. Sitting cross-armed in front of the media, his bottom lip is lined with dry mud, his eyebrows bushy with dust. The first question in the press conference comes, and the world champion replies with eight words: “I feel good. I was happy with today.” The reporter, stumped by the brevity, follows up with another. “Are you not tired?” he asks. This time, Pogačar just shrugs and smiles – his weary eyes give as clear an answer as any words could.
The prophecy told that Tadej Pogačar would win Paris-Roubaix. For months, he was touted as the chosen one: the boy from Klanec – a leafy Slovenian village with one restaurant and a population fewer than 350 – who was destined to become the first rider since Roger De Vlaeminck in 1977 to win all five Monuments. He might still, but for now at least, his shot at history has been deferred.
