Close victories and demonstrations of power: 21 cycling pictures from March

Tadej Pogacar still in top form

Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar was able to confirm his strong form last month, underlining his goals for this season (double victory consisting of the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France). In the Strade Bianche one-day race, the Slovenian pulled away 81 kilometres before the finish and could no longer be caught by the competition. He won in Siena with a lead of 2:44 minutes.

Nobody could hold a candle to him at the Tour of Catalonia either. With four stage wins in the week-long race, he had a lead of 3:41 minutes over second-placed Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) in the overall standings.

Only at Milan-San Remo did the top favourite fail to live up to expectations. In the final sprint after almost 300 kilometres, he was beaten by the winner Jasper Philipsen and runner-up Michael Matthews and had to settle for third place.

Team SD Worx - Protime dominates women's cycling

The SD Worx - Protime team is currently made up of the best female professional cyclists in the world: Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes are just a few of the names on the Dutch team. It is therefore not surprising that the team was once again very successful in March.

Lotte Kopecky won the Strade Bianche 2024 ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini at the beginning of the month - despite their modest form on the day. Around eleven kilometres before the finish, the pair pulled away from the competition and Kopecky gave the Italian no chance in the final kilometre, winning by four seconds in Siena.

Lorena Wiebes was also successful again and won Gent-Wevelgem ahead of Elisa Balsamo. After 171 kilometres, centimetres decided the victory of the Dutchwoman in the 12th edition of the women's race.

Matteo Jorgenson wins Paris-Nice

Visma | Lease a Bike also attracted attention with a victory at Paris-Nice. The first major stage race of the year in Europe was won by the US American Matteo Jorgensonn. Despite not winning the stage, the rider from Visma | Lease a Bike had the lowest overall time on the clock with 27:50:23 hours. This was 30 seconds faster than the runner-up and stage winner of the last stage, Remco Evenepoel.

Mathieu van der Poel wins first clash with Wout van Aert

Mathieu von der Poel won the E3 Saxo Classic 2024 and thus the won the first clash with his rival Wout van Aert. The exciting race was decided with a crash by van Aert on the Paterberg 43 kilometres before the finish. Although the Belgian was initially able to fight his way back, he collapsed in the final kilometres and was even caught by Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek).

>> These are the cycling pictures of February.