The China Mail - What next for Pogacar, Van der Poel after Roubaix blow?

For his great rival Mathieu van der Poel, though, his year seems almost as good as over after missing out on his three main Spring objectives.

Pogacar was aiming to become just the fourth man to win all five Monument races -- and the first to hold them all at the same time.

But he was beaten by a resurgent Wout van Aert in a sprint finish at the famous old Roubaix velodrome on Sunday, putting that bid on hold for a year at least.

When asked if he would come back to the 'Hell of the North', Pogacar said: "Yes, definitely. I think I will be back.

"Maybe not next year. I still have a few years of my career, I hope.

"I will try to come back and give it a go again."

He can still write his name in the record books by becoming the first rider to win four of the five Monuments in a single calendar year.

He won Milan-San Remo for the first time last month and a week ago triumphed for a record-equalling third time at the Tour of Flanders.

The two remaining Monuments are the ones best suited to Pogacar and where his recent domination has been unprecedented.

He has won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which is next up in two weeks' time, three times and finished more than a minute clear in each of the last two editions.

At the Tour of Lombardy, which takes place in October, he has been unbeatable, winning on each of the five occasions he has taken part.

Two years ago he finished more than three minutes clear of Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel.

Pogacar's focus this season seems to be squarely on the most prestigious races.

He has raced only four times this season and three of those have been Monuments, while the fourth was at Strade Bianche, the unofficial sixth Monument.

After competing at Liege, the 27-year-old Slovenian will begin his build up to the Tour de France by racing for the first time in the tours of Romandie and Switzerland.

Those are two of the seven most historic and high-profile week-long stage races and two of only three that Pogacar has yet to win.

After the Tour, he is likely to finish his season with a tilt at a third world title, a sixth Tour of Lombardy, and probably a second European crown as that race will be in his homeland.

- 'A bit unbelievable' -

As for Van der Poel, it is difficult to see where he will go from here.

In the winter he made his own history by setting a new record with an eighth cyclocross world title.

But his road campaign has ultimately been a disappointment.

Impressive victories at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and E3 Saxo Classic cannot mask the blow of missing out at Milan-San Remo, Flanders and Roubaix.

He was hampered by a crash at Milan-San Remo but both there and at Flanders he was dropped by Pogacar on the penultimate climb, finishing eighth and second respectively.

At Roubaix he was hugely impressive, fighting back to finish fourth, just 15 seconds behind Van Aert, after falling victim to the fearsome cobbled section through the Arenberg forest 95km from the finish.

"I had two flat tyres, I was more than two minutes behind and you know the race is over," Van der Poel said afterwards.

It did not look that way as he battled on to close the gap to the leading duo and even edged out specialist sprinter Christophe Laporte to take fourth place.

But asked if he had ever believed he could come back to win, Van der Poel admitted: "Not really to be honest. I had to expend so much energy just to get back to the group.

"It's a bit unbelievable I still managed to be in the sprint for the podium."

Now the 31-year-old Dutch rider will have to pick himself up again and reset his priorities for the rest of the season -- but there is no clear path for him to finish off with a glorious flourish.

None of the remaining races looked suited to his particular skillset.

J.Thompson--ThChM