Tadej Pogacar returns to UAE Team Emirates duty at the Ardennes Classics on Wednesday, his first UCI World Tour outing since his historic Tour de France triumph.
Pogacar earlier this month became the youngest Tour de France champion in 116 years and the first winner from Slovenia.
After a quick turnaround to represent Slovenia in the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday – one week after his Tour victory – Pogacar is back in World Tour action in Belgium.
The 22-year-old leads a seven-rider lineup in the rescheduled Ardennes Classics – three one-day races in Belgium and the Netherlands usually held in April but rearranged this season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pogacar is joined at the first two classics – Wednesday's La Fleche Wallonne and the Liege Bastogne Liege (October 4) – by Colombian riders Andres Camilo Ardila, Sergio Luis Henao, and Cristian Camilo Munoz, Portugal's former world champion Rui Costa, Italian Edward Ravasi, and fellow Slovenian Jan Polanc.
“I came out of the Tour pretty well. I have managed to recover a bit and my goal is to finish off the last part of the season in a good way," Pogacar said. "As always if I have the legs I will try something, but also am willing to sacrifice for my teammates if they are strong , as I did in the World Championships."
La Fleche Wallonne sees the riders cover 202km through the Ardennes region of Belgium. Four days later, the 106th edition of Liege Bastogne Liege takes in 11 climbs with 4,000m of vertical gain along its 256km route.
The old finale also gets a facelift; gone is the uphill finish into Ans, replaced with a flat finish in downtown Liege, making this a wide open race for a number of the riders who will take to the start line on Sunday.
