Star Metro - Pogacar welcomes Evenepoel challenge in Flanders

Reigning champion Pogacar has started his year in sensational form, storming to victory in Strade Bianche and then pipping Briton Tom Pidcock to the line at Milan-San Remo, the first Monument of the season.

His victory there, meant that Pogacar is missing only Paris-Roubaix from his bid to complete the Monument Grand Slam, having won Flanders twice, Liege-Bastogne-Liege three times and the Giro di Lombardia five times.

The 27-year-old Slovenian will start Sunday's race as the hot favourite, but Evenepoel's surprise participation has ramped up expectations for year's second of five Monuments.

"From my side, it's good to have a rider like Remco always wanting to go from far... and always on the attack," Pogacar said on Friday.

"We saw the last few races, he always goes for the win no matter what.

"He can do a really great race on Sunday. He's in good shape and definitely a rider to look (out) for, for his long-range attacks, and just not (to) let him out of sight."

Double Olympic champion Evenepoel is a similar rider to Pogacar, with both known for launching daring long-range solo attacks that just a few years ago would have been derided as suicide missions.

Evenepoel won the world championships in 2022 with a 25km solo breakaway having earlier in the year attacked solo 30km from the finish to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege, his first Monument success, and 44km out to win the Clasica San Sebastian.

Those, though, were dwarfed by the 80km-long solo attack Pogacar produced to win Strade Bianche in 2024.

"With Remco, you never know where he can go and he can attack in (the) most random places and you need to be careful," added Pogacar.

"You can never let him go in the front with a couple of seconds because it's almost impossible to catch him back because he's so fast."

- 'Teams have finally realised' -

Long-range attacks have been a theme of the cobbled classics season, although they have rarely been successful.

Former world champion Mathieu van der Poel, who will be aiming for a record fourth Flanders victory on Sunday, just managed to hold on to win E3 Saxo Classic last week by a handful of seconds after breaking clear 42km from the finish.

But he and arch-rival Wout van Aert were caught a kilometre from the line two days later at In Flanders Fields after breaking clear of the field with 36km left.

And on Wednesday, Van Aert was just 100-metres away from glory when he was passed by a late-charging Filippo Ganna at Dwars door Vlaanderen after another daring break from 40km out.

"The teams maybe finally realised that if somebody attacks (with) 60km to go that there's still time to reorganise themselves in the back and if you work together and (are) not just attacking each other over the climbs, there's more chance to catch the guy in the lead," said Pogacar.

"That's what happened in Ghent (In Flanders Fields) or Dwars as well. There was a bigger group in the back that could cooperate and it was interesting to watch."

But the four-time Tour de France winner, widely regarded as one of the sport's all-time greats, is not convinced that such chases would be so successful at Flanders, which at 278km is significantly longer than those other cobbled classics.

"Flanders is a very different race. It's way longer and more demanding," he said, although he added: "I'm not saying that I want to attack every race (with) 50km or 60km to go. We'll see."

A.Lavoie--SMC