{"id":587380,"date":"2026-04-05T16:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/587380\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:33:09","slug":"pogacar-wins-third-tour-of-flanders-as-big-five-do-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/587380\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar wins third Tour of Flanders as Big Five do battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n

News & Racing<\/a><\/p>\n

The top five came home one by one after an attritional race through Flanders \u2013 Van der Poel and Evenepoel join the world champion on the podium.<\/p>\n

\"Kit<\/p>\n

Cor Vos<\/p>\n

That’s two from two in 2026 for Tadej Poga\u010dar \u2013\u00a0or three from three if you include unofficial sixth Monument Strade Bianche \u2013 as he wins his third Tour of Flanders on just his third race day of the season.<\/p>\n

The world champion successfully defended his 2025 title with a confident and assured ride, along with luxury domestique Florian Vermeersch who was instrumental in forcing the elite selection on the Molenberg more than 100 km from the finish. All the pre-race favourites also made it, including debutant Remco Evenepoel, who also looked comfortable in the group, and reacted well when Poga\u010dar made his first serious move on the second time up the Oude Kwaremont, leaving only three in the lead.<\/p>\n

However, the newcomer to the cobbled Monument had his inexperience exposed on the Paterberg when Evenepoel essentially dropped himself after an early acceleration, leaving Poga\u010dar and Van der Poel alone to fight over glory. The leading duo stayed together for about 35 km until the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, where Van der Poel let go near the foot of the infamous cobbled climb.<\/p>\n

There was little more Van der Poel could do in the end \u2013 except perhaps to not have ridden at all with Poga\u010dar. But the three-time winner limited his losses on the climbs rather than try to react to his rival’s blistering accelerations, conceding that second was the best he could do in the face of the world champion’s domination.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel held onto the podium in his first Tour of Flanders, with Wout van Aert finishing fourth, and Mads Pedersen coming home fifth.<\/p>\n

Brief results:Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 6:20:07Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) +0:34Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) +1:11Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +2:04Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) +2:48<\/p>\n

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\n News & Racing<\/a>
\n Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>
\n Mathieu van der Poel<\/a>
\n Remco Evenepoel<\/a>
\n Wout van Aert<\/a>
\n Mads Pedersen<\/a>
\n Tour of Flanders<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News & Racing The top five came home one by one after an attritional race through Flanders \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-587380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}