After finishing 3rd in the first monument of the season Milan–Sanremo, Tadej returns to racing in the biggest northern classics. On Sunday, he faces his third appearance in the Tour of Flanders, and a week later, on April 13, he will have his fiery baptism in Paris–Roubaix. In training, Tadej reconed the routes of both races, but for now, he is focused on the challenge in Flanders.
He missed the biggest Belgian one-day race last year, but the year before, he celebrated one of his most beautiful victories there. He attacked on the climb at Oude Kwaremont and left his last competitor Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck) behind 17 kilometers from the finish. The Dutchman, who won for the third time in Sanremo two weeks ago, will again be Tadej’s most dangerous competitor on paper.
»This is his favorite terrain, so it will be hard to beat him here. He is better in sprints, on cobblestones, and in technical sections. After six hours of racing, I might be better, but Mathieu is in exceptional form, so I can’t rely on that. I will try to gain some advantage and keep it. There will be many different options on Sunday, I have to seize one and hope for the best,« Tadej said at the press conference before the 269-kilometer race with 16 short but demanding cobbled climbs and seven flat cobbled sections.
»I came to race for the win and I will give it my all to succeed. But it won’t just be Mathieu, there will also be other teams wanting to win and not racing for 2nd place. There will be a lot of tactics and attacks, we have to be ready for everything. I need to make sure the race is as tough as possible,« added Tadej. He will have an exceptionally strong team UAE Team Emirates – XRG by his side. In addition to Nils Politt, Mikkel Bjerg, and António Morgado, who finished 3rd, 4th, and 5th in last year’s Tour of Flanders, the team will also include Florian Vermeersch, Tim Wellens, and Jhonatan Narvaez.