Van Aert questions Pogacar puncture claim after Roubaix sprint: 'It didn’t look like a flat tyre'

The claim came from Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Antonio Morgado, who raised the possibility shortly after the finish. “It looked like he had a problem with the rear tyre,” Morgado said to In de Leiderstrui. “When we checked the bike, it didn’t feel right. It seemed like he had a puncture at the back.”

That comment cast a different light on the final sprint in the Roubaix velodrome, where Pogačar was beaten by Van Aert after coming within metres of completing his Monument collection.

Van Aert, however, had not heard the story until he was asked about it several weeks after his victory.

“No,” he said with a laugh speaking to Domestique among other reporters at Service Koers, where he was honoured for his Paris-Roubaix victory. “That is the first I hear of it.”

The Belgian did not rule it out completely, but said it was not something he noticed during the sprint or in the footage he has watched since.

“I don’t know if that is verified news,” Van Aert said. “In Belgium we did not spend any ink on it, so it did not reach me. It would be bad, of course. I don’t know. It did not look like that, I can say that. I have watched that sprint a hundred times again, and it did not look like a flat tyre. But of course, it is possible.”

Van Aert’s own memory of the final kilometre is one of unusual calm. He said he was focused on entering the velodrome in second position, the place he wanted to be before opening the sprint.

“I really wanted to be second at the start of the track,” he said. “As I remember it, that worked without me having to make much effort. I don’t even think he tried to force me to the front. From the final kilometre I was not really nervous anymore. It was a strange experience. Everything felt very calm, even slow.”

The 31-year-old Belgian was also open about the role fortune played in his Roubaix win. He pointed to Mathieu van der Poel’s bad luck as a major factor in how the race unfolded, while noting that his own problems came at less damaging moments.

“In Roubaix it simply fell my way,” he said. “Mathieu having bad luck determines a big part of the race. I had relatively little bad luck myself, or at least not at the worst moments. That plays a role too.”

Read the full interview with Van Aert here.