Pogacar claims impressive Tour of Flanders win

Tadej Pogacar held off defending champion Mathieu van der Poel to claim his second Tour of Flanders title.

The three-time Tour de France champion, racing for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, completed the 270km course in Belgium in five hours, 58 minutes and 41 seconds.

Pogacar finished just over a minute clear of Denmark's Mads Pedersen in second, while Dutchman Van der Poel came third, having recovered from a crash with 127km to go.

The Tour of Flanders, which began in 1919 and known as De Ronde, is a one-day road race and second of the five Monuments of the season, held in Belgium every spring and highlighted by climbs and cobbled sectors.

"The goal was to win, but at the end it's hard to realise. I cannot be more proud of the team," said the 26-year-old.

Van der Poel re-joined the peloton within just 10km of his crash and tussled with Pogacar through the hills.

But the Slovenian pulled away with a race-winning attack on the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont with around 15km to go and cruised along the flat roads to a solo victory.

The chasing pack sprinted for the remaining medal positions with Belgian Wout van Aert missing out on a podium finish.

On 13 April, Pogacar will be taking part on more cobbled tracks for the Paris-Roubaix race - known as 'hell of the north' and another of the five Monument one-day races - for the first time, where Van der Poel is again the defending champion.

"Roubaix is a completely different race, but I will accept the challenge and try to do my best," added Pogacar.