Allan Peiper on Tadej Pogačar's legacy and Paris-Roubaix 🇦🇺 🇸🇮
We talked to his first Tour de France DS about whether the rider should race the cobbles or focus on joining the Tour greats
Hi Subscribers,
During this week’s trip to Belgium, I was lucky to catch up with Allan Peiper. I’ve known the Australian since 2008 when I started covering the sport consistently.
Since then, I’ve got to know Allan well, visited him at his house in Belgium and learned a huge amount about the sport from his years of experience and knowledge. A few days ago, we met up once more in Geraardsbergen, at his wife’s amazing cafe Lathee, for lunch. As always, it was a complete pleasure to sit with Allan and talk about life and cycling. He’s been through so much but has always remained positive. He’s a genuine inspiration.
Ten minutes of our lunch turned into an interview, and the focus was on Tadej Pogačar, a first-year pro at UAE Team Emirates back in 2019. Allan was his first Tour de France-winning DS in 2020, and we talked about Pogačar’s legacy, his decision to race Paris-Roubaix – and whether that’s the right call – and the rider’s character off the bike.
I know I’m biased because of my respect and admiration for Allan, but this interview was really insightful.
I hope you enjoy it.
Daniel 🫶
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Daniel Benson: Let's start with an easy one. Do you think Tadej Pogačar can win Paris-Roubaix?
Allan Peiper: I think it will be difficult. I won’t say that it will be impossible, but it’s going to be difficult. Just because of the experience, the weight, all those sectors of cobbles, it’s going to be difficult for him to win.
Daniel Benson: Do you get why he’s doing it?
Allan Peiper: I can sort of understand. Riders need new challenges, and back in the day, I saw that with Mark Cavendish at Highroad. He wanted to ride new things and have different aims because just focusing on the same races every year gets a bit boring after a while, and I think for Tadej, it might be a little bit the same. He wants to do some different things.
Daniel Benson: What would your advice be for him?
Allan Peiper: He doesn’t ask me [laughs], he’s just riding Roubaix. My opinion is, and I’m close to retirement age, so my perspective is different as I look back through a few generations, but it’s not for nothing that Eddy Merckx's photo is in my house. He won the Tour de France five times, and the other greats of the sport won the Tour five times. For me, it might not matter for Tadej now, but 20 or 30 years from now, it might. Jan Ullrich, they said, was going to win the Tour six times, and he only ended up with one because someone else popped up, and I just think that the Tour should be the focus for at least a couple more years. He’s close. He’s got three already, but things can change fast. And even though Roubaix is a fun race, it’s still a dangerous race, no matter what you say. Vehicles, motorcycles and holes in the road, it’s still a dangerous race.