The name of Tadej Pogačar is starting to bounce around with some frequency in the cyclocross world. The phenomenal Slovenian, who has been dominating the road scene for years now, had already been called to “fight in the mud” a few weeks ago (even though for now, this season, very little mud has been seen) directly by the team’s managers.International Cycling Unionbut the call-up, even just for a few sporadic events, would have met with resistance from the team. Now, however, the invitations to the champion of UAE Emirates XRGwho in the past had ventured into some “off-road” races, are becoming more direct.
The organizers of the cyclocross race in Gullegem (Belgium), included in the circuit Super prestige and scheduled for Saturday 3 January 2026, they have in fact attempted a coup, sending a participation proposal to the Slovenian, or at least to his surrounding environment. “We were looking for some important names for our race, considering that they won’t come to us Mathieu van der Poel and they won’t even be there Wout van Aert e Thibau Nys – the words of Stijn Tant, head organizer, collected by Sporza – We were looking for a really strong one. And so we realized that the description of the rider we needed was that of Tadej Pogačar”.
Tant recounts the details of the “negotiation”: “At that point we said to ourselves that if you don’t try, you certainly can’t be satisfied… We started making a lot of phone calls and also talked to his agent, Alex Carera. But in the end they told us no, because Pogačar is away for a training period and because our match would not have fit into the calendar they had planned for him at this time of the year.”
Nothing to be done, therefore, for the desire to bring some very prominent names to Gullegem: “We are very enthusiastic organizers – concludes Tant – This time we have not reached any concrete agreement, but we have already made some contacts for next season…”.
Related News :