Belgian nationwide highway group supervisor Serge Pauwels has insisted that in spite of Tadej Pogačar’s crushing domination within the 2024 International Championships Elite Males’s Street Race, the Slovenian can have been overwhelmed.
Remaining 12 months in Zurich, Pogačar delivered one of the crucial spectacular International Championships breakaways ever, starting off 100 kilometres from the end and soloing to the end.
However in spite of his superiority, in a long interview with Nieuwsblad, Pauwels argued that against the tip of an especially tough race, Pogačar was once starting to flag and had groups raced another way, there would possibly but were time to show issues round.
Pauwels was once decided on as the brand new Belgian nationwide trainer throughout the wintry weather, changing Sven Vanthourenhout, who controlled Belgium’s contemporary luck on the International Championships and Olympic Video games. He’s going to additionally set up the Belgian Below 23 males’s group.
Pauwels lamented the absence of Wout van Aert from the Belgian line-up in Zurich, pronouncing “It might have turned out differently” if Van Aert was once in Zurch as an alternative of improving from his accidents after a nasty crash on the Vuelta a España.
As for this 12 months’s International Championships in Rwanda, Pauwels is already operating onerous on the best way to highest mix one of the crucial tough line-ups for each and every 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 more defensively,” Pauwels steered. “Not all pressure will then be on one person.”
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Whilst refusing to be drawn about what Belgian luck would possibly appear to be, Pauwels was once extra communicative about how he plans on establishing a group with such a lot of most sensible names in it.
That is a query this is arguably one of the most largest demanding situations for any main nationwide squad trainer and in Belgium, specifically, recollections of the way their elite males’s rainbow jersey bid unravelled in 2021 in a labyrinth of group politics in 2021 are nonetheless rather recent. That all of it came about on house soil, within the Worlds at Louvain, Belgium, simplest makes the setback much more memorable.
“ I think that’s still more of a blessing than a curse [to have so many top riders]. Evenepoel and Van Aert themselves also realize that they can simply function complementarily. Thanks to the presence of Remco, Wout can race a bit more defensively,” Pauwels said.
“Not all the pressure will then be on one person. Of course, you can’t go to a race with five leaders either, because it makes it very difficult to decide on a strategy.”
Pauwels does not say that Pogačar would have been beaten in Zurich had his rivals raced differently. However, he did not rule it out.
“All of the leading [rival] countries, including us, burned out a lot of riders early on,” Pauwels said in hindsight.
“Rather we should have collaborated with, maybe, the Dutch and the Danes, and continued to maintain a high pace. Then it might have turned out differently.”
“It’s easy to say afterwards – but who would have thought Pogacar would stay away for so long? Everyone was surprised, including the riders.”
Pogačar was fading, albeit unevenly, on the final laps of the Zurich circuit. Pauwels pointed out, arguing that Van Aert, had he been able to race, might have changed matters.
“At Visma-Lease a Bike, he sometimes has to be a team worker, but in the national squad, Wout must either aim for leadership or protected rider status,” Pauwels said.
“Frankly, there isn’t a course that Wout can’t handle. If you look at how someone like [Mathieu] van der Poel was up there on a difficult course like Zurich, Wout could have done that too.”
As national coach, Pauwels is already heavily involved in the behind-the-scenes planning – “90% of the back-up staff [for September] are already in place,” he told Nieuwsblad .
After talking to many of the potential riders for the Belgian lineup like Jasper Stuyven, Tim Declerq, Edward Theuns and Thibau Nys in person during a recent trip to Spain, Pauwels’ next step will be to check out the course and team hotel on site in Rwanda.
Pauwels also managed to see Evenepoel’s coach Koen Pilgrim in Spain for an update on the Belgian star after his training accident last December.
Pilgrim told Pauwels that despite the recent emergence of a minor delay in his recovery timeline, the 2022 Road Race World Champion should still be back on the road in the spring.
Yet when it comes to the Elite Men’s Road Race this September, the leading question right now for all the top team coaches in Rwanda – bar one – will surely be how to beat Pogačar.
“How can we make it as difficult as possible for Pogačar?” Pauwels asked rhetorically.
“That is a question that concerns me more than the course issue. That’s something everyone should think about. ”
