The two-time Tour de France winner broke away from the pack with 50 kilometres of the 184km course to go and was unable to be chased down successfully, crossing the line in 4 hrs 47min 49sec.

He was 37 seconds in front of Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, who was a further nine in front of Denmark's Kasper Asgreen of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team.

Hungarian Attila Valter of Groupama-FDJ and Spain's Pello Bilbao of Bahrain-Victorious were just over a minute behind Pogačar in fourth and fifth.

Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe was one of the main contenders in the pack, but faced a setback at the halfway stage when a strong wind caused a collision, which the Quick-Step rider was caught up in.

Despite catching up to the pack, he got stuck in one of the fragmented packs, crossing in 58th after a hard chase.

British rider Tom Pidcock did not start after he was unable to recover from a stomach virus, while Belgian Wout van Aert and Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel - the defending champion - did not enter.

Belgian Lotte Kopecky of SD Worx won a thrilling sprint to the line in the Strade Bianche Donne against the defending International Cycling Union Women's WorldTour champion Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar.

Kopecky moved away from the peloton with 21km to go of the 136km route and after some attacks were formed to catch her, it was only the Dutch rider Van Vleuten's that stuck, with 14km left.

The pair were then caught by the group with 7km remaining, but in the uphill section to the line, it was the two breakaways who emerged in the fight for the win.

Kopecky stopped Van Vleuten from winning her third Strade Bianche Donne title, emotionally celebrating after 3:59:14 of cycling.

South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio joined her team mate Kopecky on the podium, finishing 10 seconds adrift after a couple of moot attacks in the latter stages.

Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Canyon-Sram Racing was fourth and Denmark's Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig of FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope completed the top five, with the pack breaking up significantly in the tough last mile.

Switzerland's Elise Chabbey of Canyon-Sram was sixth in front of two of the race contenders - The Netherlands' Marianne Vos of Jumbo-Visma and Italian home favourite Elisa Longo Borghini of Trek-Segafredo.