Valentine's Day: 6 prominent cycling couples

Tadej Pogacar and Urska Zigart

In love, engaged - but not yet married. Tadej Pogacar and Urska Zigart are the dream couple of Slovenian cycling. She is a three-time time trial champion in her country and a good climber, while he has already won two Tour de France victories and has won six monuments, the Tour of Lombardy three times, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Flanders, among numerous other races.

However, the two got to know each other before Pogacar became successful. In 2017, they both took part in a training camp for the Slovenian national team and got to know each other while chatting on the bike. Problem: "Tadej was still racing as a junior and was a bit too young for me," Zigart, who is more than two years older than her partner, told the L'Equipe. A year and a half later, however, it became more than just friendship. The couple moved to Monaco in 2019 because the hustle and bustle in their home country had already become too much for the rising star. Two years later, they got engaged.

The pair occasionally share insights into their training together on Instagram.

Mikkel Bjerg and Emma Norsgaard

They are all early starters. Emma Norsgaard was already Danish champion in the elite road race in 2016 at the age of 16, while Mikkel Bjerg was U23 world time trial champion three times between 2017 and 2019. They have been engaged since 2018, when they were just 18 and 19 years old. They got married three years later, after the season in October 2021. The Danish former pro Matti Breschel is said to have been the DJ at the party.

The two Danes - he from Copenhagen, she from Silkeborg - have something over many other cycling couples. They have both travelled to the World Championships together before and competed in a race together. That was at the mixed relay in Wollongong 2022, which Denmark finished in 6th place. "I hope that this format will become an Olympic event so that we can compete together," Bjerg told the Danish broadcaster after the World Championships TV 2 Sport. But at least in Paris, that won't work this year.

Officially, both have also adopted their partner's surname, but in sport they have chosen not to do so. This means that Mathias Norsgaard is not the only rider with this surname in the professional peloton. The 2.02 metre tall man is one of the tallest riders ever, rides for Team Movistar like his sister and is also part of the newly formed family, so to speak. The trio - Emma, Mikkel and Mathias - spend most of the year together in Girona, Spain, when they are not racing around the world.

Joonas Henttala and Lotta Henttala

Lotta Henttala achieved her greatest success when she was still called Lepistö. That was in 2016, when she won bronze at the World Championships in Dubai. A lot has happened since then. The 34-year-old has climbed to third place in the world rankings, overcome depression, got married, became a mother - and is now back in the saddle. Her husband is Joonas Henttala, like his wife from Finland. They were married in October 2019 and their son was born in January 2022.

In May 2021, Lotta raced her last race before her first pregnancy, skipping the 2022 season completely. In 2023, she competed again - one of the few women to do so after giving birth. Her husband, who is two years younger than her and also a Finnish champion, hung up his bike after the season. During his career, Joonas rode for the Novo Nordisk team, which only employs athletes with diabetes. On 30 December 2025, Lotta Henttala became a mother once again.

Taylor Phinney and Kasia Niewiadoma

The American and the Polish rider met at the breakfast buffet at the World Cycling Championships in Qatar in 2016. "We had a race the next day, so it was hard to find time to hang out," Niewiadoma told VELO, adding: "I felt a spark." A short time later, Niewiadoma moved to Girona, where Phinney was already living. The two eventually became a couple.

While Niewiadoma is now one of the best riders in the professional peloton, Phinney ended his career at the end of 20219. The son of Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney was a world-class time trialist in his active days, but was repeatedly set back by injuries. He has since dedicated himself to painting, among other things. He has also put his design skills to good use on a jumper that reflects Kasia Niewadoma's main competitions in 2025. Spoiler: already sold out.

Julian Alaphilippe and Marion Rousse

Marion Rousse was a professional cyclist herself between 2010 and 2015 and now holds one of the most important management positions in cycling: race director of the Tour de France Femmes. The Frenchwoman initially formed a prominent cycling couple with her compatriot Tony Gallopin. They married in 2014, but Rousse made their separation public via Instagram in February 2020.

Her current partner is also a professional cyclist: Julian Alaphilippe The two-time road world champion revealed in an interview with the French sports newspaper L'Equipe in April 2020 that he and Rousse were a couple. Their son Nino was born in 2021.

Jacopo Mosca and Elisa Longo Borghini

Of course a bike had to play some kind of role. And of course it had to be a Trek. Jacopo Mosca sat on the classic city bike, dressed in fine threads. In the back, in the children's trailer, Elisa Longo Borghini had made herself more or less comfortable in a white dress. This is how the newly married couple left a church in Ornavasso, Longo Borghini's hometown, on 28 October 2023.

Mosca, 30, has been riding for the Trek team since 2019, just like his wife, who is almost two years older. While Longo Borghini has 40 victories to her name, has won Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and the Strade Bianche and was Italian champion, her husband is a loyal assistant who has not been riding on his own account for years.

"We have to play Tetris to see each other," Longo Borghini told Italian media. "But it's always worth it."