PARIS (AP) — Welcome to the Hell of the North, Tadej Pogacar.
The three-time Tour de France champion from Slovenia will take part for the first time in Paris-Roubaix, the gruelling cycling classic over cobblestones held in northern France next month, his team said on Wednesday.
It was initially planned for Pogacar to compete in both the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem this week. He scrapped both events from his race program to prepare for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, which are part of the five “monuments” in one-day cycling alongside Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the Tour of Lombardy and Milan-San Remo.