Tadej Pogacar completes superb solo victory in Strade Bianche

Tadej Pogacar won an incident-packed Strade Bianche on Saturday (5 March) thanks to a magnificent solo attack.

With 50km to go, Slovenia's two-time reigning Tour de France champion broke clear of the field and stayed clear to complete a stunning victory in Siena.

The Tokyo 2020 cycling road race bronze medallist was caught up in a huge crash early on as a big gust of wind caused havoc.

World champion Julian Alaphilippe was lucky to escape serious injury as he went somersaulting over his handlebars before diving to avoid being hit by his rivals.

Incredibly, the Frenchman returned to the front of the pack and actually tried an attack of his own moments before Pogacar launched his decisive breakaway.

Pogacar said in his post-race interview, "Normally there’s a moment where the race goes, and this time I tried to do my best effort on the Sante Marie climb, and nobody followed so in the end I was alone. I had to be fully committed once I started and I’m happy that I could do it.

"I didn’t know until the last climb. I was all the time looking back... 'Where is everybody?' It was really tense. My energy was going lower and lower in the final, but I managed to survive until the end."

Ecuador's Olympic champion Richard Carapaz suffered a puncture which ended his hopes of chasing down the leader.

Inside the last 20km, Kasper Asgreen tried to reel in Pogacar with Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde, 41, taking his wheel 11km from the finish.

But the pair were unable to catch the 23-year-old who hand enough time to high-five spectators on his way to back-to-back UCI World Tour wins after taking last month's UAE Tour.

Valverde, in his last Strade Bianche, crossed the line 37 seconds later with the Dane a further nine seconds back in third.