Slovenia's cycling superstar defends Tour of Flanders title

Slovenia's cycling superstar Tadej Pogačar has defended his Tour of Flanders title after he broke his rivals on sustained endurance, becoming the most recent three-time winner of this Belgian classic.

He has had a great start to the season, having won all of the three races he has so far competed in, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider attacked 57 kilometres to go, and at first all of his main rivals were able to follow him. However, they soon began lagging behind one by one. The first dropped was Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), followed by Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

The last man still riding with the Slovenian was Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), who was then dropped on the final Oude Kwaremont ascent, some 18 kilometres before the finish line.

Pogačar rode to another solo victory, his trademark move and a carbon copy of his last year's win, to equal the winning record and join the elite company of the few riders, including van der Poel, who have won the Tour of Flanders three times.

Van der Poel finished second, 34 seconds after Pogačar, and Evenepoel rounded out the podium in third, one minute and 11 seconds behind the winner.

Pogačar previously won the Belgian classic in 2025 and 2023. In his Tour of Flanders debut in 2022 he finished fourth.

This is his second monument win this season, coming on the heels of his Milan-San Remo victory two weeks ago.

In a week's time, the 27-year-old will be aiming to win Paris-Roubaix, the only monument race that is still eluding him. It is no secret that Pogačar would like to win all five of these most prestigious one-day events in men's cycling in a single season, and his chances of achieving what would be a historic first are looking good this year.

"It was a crazy race today ... it was super hard ... a little bit, like you said, a waiting game, but still it was an effort pushing the pedals," he told the organisers after the 5 April race.

Asked about his spotless record so far this season - three appearances, three wins, he said:

"I don't race too much, so when I race, there is pressure to win. So far everything has gone perfect for me, so I can be more than happy, and coming next week to Roubaix, I can go motivated, but yeah, try to enjoy the cobbles."

Five other Slovenians took part in this year's Tour of Flanders, including Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), who finished eighth in what is his best result in this classic so far.

Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA