Belgian nationwide highway group supervisor Serge Pauwels has insisted that regardless of Tadej Pogačar’s crushing domination within the 2024 World Championships Elite Men’s Road Race, the Slovenian may have been crushed.
Last 12 months in Zurich, Pogačar delivered one of the vital spectacular World Championships breakaways ever, taking off 100 kilometres from the end and soloing to the end.
But regardless of his superiority, in a prolonged interview with Nieuwsblad, Pauwels argued that in direction of the tip of a particularly demanding race, Pogačar was starting to flag and had groups raced in a different way, there would possibly but have been time to show issues round.
Pauwels was chosen as the brand new Belgian nationwide coach in the course of the winter, changing Sven Vanthourenhout, who managed Belgium’s current success on the World Championships and Olympic Games. He may also handle the Belgian Under 23 males’s group.
Pauwels lamented the absence of Wout van Aert from the Belgian line-up in Zurich, saying “It might need turned out in a different way” if Van Aert was in Zurch as an alternative of recovering from his accidents after a nasty crash on the Vuelta a España.
As for this 12 months’s World Championships in Rwanda, Pauwels is already working onerous on how you can greatest mix one of the vital highly effective line-ups for each highway race, with Remco Evenepoel and Van Aert each within the combine for group management.
“Thanks to the presence of Remco, Wout can race a bit extra defensively,” Pauwels instructed. “Not all strain will then be on one individual.”
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While refusing to be drawn about what Belgian success would possibly appear to be, Pauwels was extra communicative about how he plans on organising a group with so many prime names in it.
That’s a query that’s arguably one of many largest challenges for any main nationwide squad coach and in Belgium, specifically, reminiscences of how their elite males’s rainbow jersey bid unravelled in 2021 in a labyrinth of group politics in 2021 are nonetheless comparatively contemporary. That all of it occurred on house soil, within the Worlds at Louvain, Belgium, solely makes the setback much more memorable.
“ I believe that is nonetheless extra of a blessing than a curse [to have so many top riders]. Evenepoel and Van Aert themselves additionally notice that they will merely perform complementarily. Thanks to the presence of Remco, Wout can race a bit extra defensively,” Pauwels stated.
“Not all of the strain will then be on one individual. Of course, you may’t go to a race with 5 leaders both, as a result of it makes it very tough to resolve on a method.”
Pauwels doesn’t say that Pogačar would have been crushed in Zurich had his rivals raced in a different way. However, he didn’t rule it out.
“All of the main [rival] nations, together with us, burned out a variety of riders early on,” Pauwels stated in hindsight.
“Rather we must always have collaborated with, possibly, the Dutch and the Danes, and continued to keep up a excessive tempo. Then it might need turned out in a different way.”
“It’s simple to say afterwards – however who would have thought Pogacar would keep away for therefore lengthy? Everyone was stunned, together with the riders.”
Pogačar was fading, albeit erratically, on the ultimate laps of the Zurich circuit. Pauwels identified, arguing that Van Aert, had he been in a position to race, might need modified issues.
“At Visma-Lease a Bike, he typically must be a group employee, however within the nationwide squad, Wout should both intention for management or protected rider standing,” Pauwels stated.
“Frankly, there is not a course that Wout cannot deal with. If you take a look at how somebody like [Mathieu] van der Poel was up there on a tough course like Zurich, Wout may have achieved that too.”
As nationwide coach, Pauwels is already closely concerned within the behind-the-scenes planning – “90% of the back-up workers [for September] are already in place,” he informed Nieuwsblad .
After speaking to lots of the potential riders for the Belgian lineup like Jasper Stuyven, Tim Declerq, Edward Theuns and Thibau Nys in individual throughout a current journey to Spain, Pauwels’ subsequent step shall be to take a look at the course and group resort on web site in Rwanda.
Pauwels additionally managed to see Evenepoel’s coach Koen Pilgrim in Spain for an replace on the Belgian star after his coaching accident final December.
Pilgrim informed Pauwels that regardless of the current emergence of a minor delay in his restoration timeline, the 2022 Road Race World Champion ought to nonetheless be again on the highway within the spring.
Yet on the subject of the Elite Men’s Road Race this September, the main query proper now for all the highest group coaches in Rwanda – bar one – will certainly be how you can beat Pogačar.
“How can we make it as tough as doable for Pogačar?” Pauwels requested rhetorically.
“That is a query that issues me greater than the course problem. That’s one thing everybody ought to take into consideration. ”