Tadej Pogacar continued his imperious reign with a stunning solo victory in this year’s Il Lombardia, his fourth in a row and first Monument in the world champion’s rainbow jersey. The Slovenian took off with 48km to race, attacking along the Sormano climb, later soloing to victory ahead of Remco Evenepoel and Giulio Ciccone. His triumph now equals Fausto Coppi’s record four in a row between 1946-49.
The new world champion signed off with a long-range solo attack over the hills of northern Italy, while double Olympic gold medallist Evenepoel among a small, select group to give chase, but the Slovenian could not be reined in on the way to Como.
Earlier, the battle for a breakaway was a long, drawn-out one, taking more than an hour and 50km before a group of 11 riders managed to escape, with the group later ballooning to 22 after an additional hour of racing.
From there, the breakaway was allowed to maintain a gap of around two minutes, though their advantage briefly drew out to nearer five. But, as the race entered its final phase, the remaining escapees were barely clinging to a two-minute advantage along the Madonna del Ghisallo.
The catch was inevitable as they reached the Colma di Sormano leaving Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to forge ahead, taking Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Dani Martinez, Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) and Einer Rubio (Movistar) along with him before they were reeled in with 50km to go.
Less than a kilometer later, Pogacar launched his winning attack, with Evenepoel, Enric Mas (Movistar) and Lennert Van Eeetvelt (Lotto Dstny) left to vie for the remaining podium positions, who found themselves already a minute down on Pogacar.
Mas and Van Eetvelt were content to scrap it out for third, while Evenepoel went ahead, only for the duo to find themselves caught by Pavel Sivakov (UAE Emirates) and Ciccone (Lidl-Trek).
Meanwhile, Pogacar crossed the finish line 3’16” ahead of an exhausted Evenepoel. It was the world champion’s biggest winning margin of the season by 32 seconds, while Ciccone grabbed the final spot on the podium.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
