Slovenian cycling superstar Tadej Pogačar has ended weeks of speculation by announcing that he will compete for the first time in Paris-Roubaix, also known as Hell of the North, one of the toughest one-day races in the world. It is one of only two monuments that he has yet to win.

Pogačar's participation in the classic race in northern France was confirmed by his UAE Team Emirates-XRG on 26 March.

The team announced that the best-ranked cyclist in the world will focus in the next two weeks on the one-day Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix races, which are two of the five "monuments" of cycling.

These are five classic races generally considered to be the oldest, hardest, longest and most prestigious one-day events in men's road cycling, with distances between 240 and 300 km.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG thus confirmed the hints raised by Pogačar himself when, in early February, he shared a social media video of him battling the Trouée d'Arenberg cobbled road, one of the most difficult sections of Paris-Roubaix.

The Slovenian ace was initially on the roster to compete in the E3 Saxo Bank Classic and Gent-Wevelgem races in Belgium, but the team has decided to adjust his calendar after consultation.

Pogačar will now compete in the Tour of Flanders on 6 April and the Paris-Roubaix on 13 April.

The latter will be his first appearance in the race in the senior competition, after he finished 30th and 13th in the shortened version for young cyclists in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Pogačar will be the first reigning Tour de France champion to compete in Paris-Roubaix since American Greg LeMond in 1991.

The last reigning Tour de France winner who also won the race was the legendary Belgian Eddy Merckx in 1973.

In addition to Milan-San Remo, in which the Slovenian finished third for the second time in a row last week, this is one of two monuments that Pogačar has yet to win.

So far, he has won the Tour of Flanders once, the Liege-Bastogne-Liege twice, the Tour of Lombardy four times.

Pogačar is not hiding his desire to join the very short list of cyclists who have won all the monuments - only Merckx and two other Belgians, Rik Van Looy and Roger De Vlaeminck, managed the feat in the 1960s and 1970s.

The race from the French capital to Roubaix is considered the most demanding one-day race in the world, with more than 58 kilometres of cobbled sections.

Thierry Gouvenou, the director of Paris-Roubaix, described the announcement as a big moment for cycling. "It's been many years since we hosted a Tour de France winner who can also compete for victory in Roubaix," he told the French press agency AFP.

Pogačar's decision was also welcomed by David Lappartient, the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI): "Thank you Tadej! What a champion!" he said on X.