Tadej Pogacar won a record-equalling third Tour of Flanders on Sunday after the world champion dropped his main rival Mathieu van der Poel with 18km to ride. However, the race winner later learned he would be among up to 20 cyclists in the race who could face action from Belgian authorities after running a red light at a railway crossing.

Van der Poel was himself aiming for a record fourth victory in the second Monument of the season, but instead Pogacar made it two from two in the prestigious one-day classics having won Milan-San Remo last month.

At the contentious rail crossing, the main peloton stopped as required but Pogacar and a bunch of chasers slipped across the tracks in pursuit of a leading group, despite the warning signals and the risk of an oncoming train.

Pogacar claimed he and several others were alerted to the red light too late. “Suddenly, three guys jumped in the middle of the road and started waving to stop. How can you stop in one second,” he said. “I was thinking maybe it’s some protesters or something crazy is going on.”

The East Flanders public prosecutor’s office announced it would pursue the riders for breaching road safety rules. “The offenders will be identified and a report will be filed,” it said.

Pogacar now has 12 Monument victories, putting the 27-year-old rider clear in second in the all-time list behind only Eddy Merckx with 19. He has raced three times this year, winning all three, and if he wins Paris-Roubaix next weekend he will join an elite band as just the fourth man to win all five Monuments after Merckx and fellow Belgians Rik Van Looy and Roger De Vlaeminck.

“It was a really crazy race today, I don’t know what to say: super-hard from I don’t know which kilometre,” Pogacar told Belgian TV. “I don’t race too much, so when I race there is pressure to win. So far everything went perfect for me so I can be more than happy. Coming next week to Roubaix I can go motivated, but I try to enjoy the cobbles.”

On his Roubaix debut last year, he finished second to Van der Poel, who won for the third year in a row.

The double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel held on for third ahead of fellow Belgian Wout van Aert after 278km and more than six hours riding around Flanders, with its punchy climbs and numerous cobbled sections.

In what was billed as a battle between four of the biggest stars in cycling, Pogacar once again proved he is a cut above the others, although Van der Poel – one of the best cobbled specialists – pushed him all the way.

Pogacar had dropped all his rivals bar Van der Poel and Evenepoel with an acceleration on the second of three ascents up the Oude Kwaremont climb with 57km to race.

Evenepoel was dropped on the very next climb, the Paterberg, and although he kept within a handful of seconds at first, he would gradually drift backwards, finishing more than a minute after Pogacar.

Pogacar and Van der Poel rode together for the better part of 40km before the Slovenian put in his race-winning move on the final ride up the Oude Kwaremont. He crested that with a six-second advantage, but Van der Poel’s resistance was broken and he would only lose more time before the finish.

In the women’s race, the European champion Demi Vollering made an identical move to Pogacar, dropping her rivals and cresting the Oude Kwaremont with a 19sec lead over Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Puck Pieterse.

The Dutch rider would not be caught, coming home at the end of the 164km race with a 45sec gap to Ferrand-Prévot, who easily pipped Pieterse in the sprint for second.

It was the 2023 Tour de France Femmes winner’s third Monument victory having won Liège-Bastogne-Liège twice. The record three-time winner Lotte Kopecky settled for fourth.