Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar leads UAE Team Emirates at Ardennes Classics

Slovenian rider returns to World Tour action for the first time since his historic Grand Tour victory in Paris

UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia, is seen wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, and Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Sam Bennett of Ireland, wearing the green jersey, before the official start. REUTERS

Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar (L) of UAE-Team Emirates wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey and Irish rider Sam Bennett (R) of Deceuninck Quick-Step team wearing the best sprinter green jersey greet each other before the start of the 21th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 122 km from Mantes la Jolie to Paris, France. EPA

Slovenia's Primoz Roglic, left, who lost his overall leader's yellow jersey to Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, right, gets a hug during the twenty-first and last stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 122 kilometers (75.8 miles), from Mantes-La-Jolie to Paris, France. AP Photo

Italy's Elia Viviani wears a face mask reading "No To Racism" as he arrives for the start of the twenty-first and last stage of the Tour de France cycling race. AP Photo

Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar of the UAE Team Emirates, bearer of the Yellow T-shirt waves from the podium before the start of the 21st and last stage of the Tour de France 2020 cycling race over 122km from Mantes-La-Jolie to Paris, France. EPA

Team UAE Emirates rider Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey attends the start of the 21st and last stage of the 107th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 122 km between Mantes-la-Jolie and Champs Elysees Paris. AFP

Team UAE Emirates rider Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey (3rd-L) and Team UAE Emirates riders ride during the 21st and last stage of the 107th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 122 km between Mantes-la-Jolie and Champs Elysees Paris. AFP

Team Jumbo rider Slovenia's Primoz Roglic waits prior to the 21st and last stage of the 107th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 122 km between Mantes-la-Jolie and Champs Elysees Paris. AFP

Spectators watch the peloton passing by during the 21st stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 122 km from Mantes la Jolie to Paris, France. EPA

Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar (2-nd L) of the UAE Team Emirates, flanked by teammates, wears the overall leader's yellow jersey as waiting for the start of the 21st and last stage of the Tour de France 2020 cycling race over 122km from Mantes-La-Jolie to Paris, France. EPA

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.