Pogacar unfazed by Evenepoel’s surprise Tour of Flanders debut

Tadej Pogačar has confessed that he was not entirely surprised by Remco Evenepoel’s late confirmation of his Tour of Flanders debut given the rumours that had circulated since the winter.

After months of repeated denials by his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, Evenepoel finally announced on Wednesday that he would line up at this year’s Tour of Flanders. Although Evenepoel has never raced a Flemish Classic before, he is expected to join Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert as Pogačar’s chief rivals on Sunday.

“I was a little bit surprised and a little bit not,” Pogačar said during a brief appearance on Sporza’s ‘Vive le Vélo’ show on Thursday evening. “I heard some rumours that he wanted to do those races already a long time ago. But also yesterday was April 1 so maybe it was a joke. It’s good to see him in the race on Sunday.”

Pogačar arrived in Belgium on Thursday afternoon, landing at Wevelgem airport. He later appeared alongside teammate Florian Vermeersch on Sporza’s cycling chat show, which was filmed at the UAE Team Emirates-XRG hotel in Waregem.

The world champion has a 100% record so far in 2026, winning Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo in his two race days to date. Pogačar won Milan-Sanremo in dramatic circumstances after crashing ahead of the Cipressa, and he insisted that he had not suffered any lingering impact from his fall.

“I was surprised there were not too many deep wounds, so it was not too disturbing,” he said.

“The trainings were good and the preparation went well. Sanremo is a different race, but I had a few days after to switch off.”

Pogačar will reconnoitre the Tour of Flanders course on Friday morning with his UAE squad before holding a press conference in Waregem in the afternoon. He is heavily favoured to continue his winning streak and collect a record-equalling third Ronde on Sunday. 

The Slovenian’s early-season programme has been focused squarely on the Classics, and he will seek to complete a full set of Monuments when he lines out at Paris-Roubaix next week, while he will also attempt to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the fourth time.

“I enjoy the moment right now,” Pogačar said when asked how he maintained his motivation. “There’s a few goals still to achieve and challenges awaiting me. I’m ready for the motivation to go down in the next few years, so we’ll have to find a way to stay motivated.”