{"id":209406,"date":"2025-10-13T08:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/209406\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T08:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:31:13","slug":"the-inner-ring-the-moment-il-lombardia-was-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/209406\/","title":{"rendered":"The Inner Ring | The Moment Il Lombardia Was Won"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tadej Poga\u010dar attacks on the Passo di Ganda. 12 pedal strokes to open a gap and he\u2019s away with the rest unable to follow. It was the predicted scenario where the advance warning was little use to his rivals.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

The day started with a choreographed send-off for those riders who started their last Lombardia, laurel wreaths were handed out and they rode past a guard of honour of their peers. Others though still face an uncertain future. Take Thibaut Guernalec, currently with Ark\u00e9a-B&B Hotels and capable of top-10s in time trials but no offers for 2026<\/a> yet. So when Quinn Simmons attacked at the start, Guernalec jumped too.<\/p>\n

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The breakaway grew to include another retiree in Louis Vervaeke, plus Filippo Ganna, Pello Bilbao, Lucas Hamilton, Victor Langellotti, Asbj\u00f8rn Hellemose, Walter Calzoni, Gal Gilvar, Bart Lemmen, Michael Matthews, Bjorn Koerdt and Mattia Bais. After the retirement ceremony now came the moment of resignation because once Alessandro De Marchi\u2019s counter-move was mopped up that was it. UAE\u2019s Domen Novak worked to keep them at three minutes, surprisingly with a little help from Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale and more from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.<\/p>\n

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Under the still warm sun the speed was fast, the early phase of UAE\u2019s tactics is designed to sap all their rivals and go into the final having spent as many kilojoules as possible. Tom Pidcock had a crash coming off the Ghisallo, a clue to the tension. Scrapping for position after Roncola saw Ben Healy and Paul Seixas caught on the wrong side of a split, this cost the French teenager energy he\u2019d have preferred to save for later. Soon after Jai Hindley hit the deck as he too fought for position.<\/p>\n

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Simmons attacked on the Passo della Crocetta with 85km to go. Long range but presumably he sensed he needed to get a move on and nobody could follow. He\u2019s seems back after a couple of missed years. Normally on a course with 4,500m of vertical gain he\u2019d have no chance but the America still had over three minutes lead on the approach to the Passo di Ganda. There even fleeting suspense because UAE were toiling without taking back time. But at the foot of the Passo di Ganda Simmon\u2019s mattress had deflated to 2m15s.<\/p>\n

Rafa\u0142 Majka did his last ever pull on the front. Soon we had \u2013 in order \u2013 Jay Vine, Tadej Poga\u010dar, Isaac Del Toro, Remco Evenepoel, Paul Seixas and Michael Storer. Once Vine wilted Poga\u010dar stood up for 12 pedal strokes and rode away. Behind there was no movement, Del Toro had been on Poga\u010dar\u2019s wheel leaving Evenepoel with an extra bike length to close but the Belgian stayed put, almost not looking as if Poga\u010dar was somehow invisible.<\/p>\n

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Seixas was slowly distanced\/ Evenepoel surged past Simmons before the top of the climb, taking Storer in his wake. The Australian lost a few metres to the world time trial champion on the Selvino hairpins and was left solo. Evenepoel had to stop in the streets of Bergamo\u2019s old city after a motorbike halted in front of him, anecdotal given the time gaps but these events seem to happen to him more than Poga\u010dar. Storer held on for third place.<\/p>\n

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The Verdict
An outstanding accomplishment yet it feels ordinary because it was so predictable. This time it felt like everyone could name not just the winner, but the tactics, the place where he\u2019d attack and, if we\u2019d cared to cross-check the cronotabella schedule, probably the time of day when he\u2019d make his move. And yet he still won.<\/p>\n

Of all the five Lombardia wins this was surely the most dominant. In the past he\u2019s had to duel with Enric Mas or Fausto Masnada<\/a>. Here he rode clear of everyone, and surpassed Fausto Coppi too. Coppi won five editions but briefly thought he\u2019d won six<\/a> because in 1956 the race came down to a sprint in Milan\u2019s Vigorelli velodrome and the Italian was convinced he won. But the photofinish showed Andr\u00e9 Darrigade got it instead, a touch of tension missing from this race although it\u2019s hard to see RCS flattening the course, let alone venturing back to Milan.<\/p>\n

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Five in a row, why not six? The statistics and anecdotes that accompany each new Poga\u010dar triumph feel ephemeral because they\u2019ll only need to be updated soon. The obvious obstacle to a sixth win is Poga\u010dar himself. We saw the mental fatigue that sapped him in July and that zapped the Vuelta in August.<\/p>\n

For Evenepoel another runner-up spot after the Worlds and Euros. His move to Red Bull is sold as a means to improve but the German team looks adrift for their budget, they\u2019d surely take second place in Bergamo right now; and probably Paris next year too. Storer was the surprise in third, finishing his best season, a rider who has few rivals on 20 minute climbs if things go his way. Simmons got fourth thanks to the long range move, something that might give a few others thought. Imagine a race where Richard Carapaz, Christian Scaroni and even Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d tried to join him at the start; or was the outcome inevitable?<\/p>\n

As Poga\u010dar openly evokes retirement, Paul Seixas continues to impress, his progress this season has been outstanding and his seventh place at the age of 19 means he\u2019s the youngest rider to make the top-10 in a Monument since 1917<\/a>, long before the Monuments were branded as such.<\/p>\n

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Cycling always seems to ask \u201cwhat\u2019s next?\u201d and Italian TV even asked him about regrets from this season. Achieving the feat of standing on the podium of all the Monuments in a season allows Poga\u010dar to celebrate but, metaphorically at least, before that second gulp of champagne comes the question of what he wants to do next. It\u2019s surely these podiums that probably tell us plenty? Look back to the time where he did not stand on the top step and Sanremo and Roubaix will surely be his priorities for 2026, then duty at the Tour de France before another summer break and the Worlds in Montr\u00e9al before, why not, a sixth win in Lombardia?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Poga\u010dar attacks on the Passo di Ganda. 12 pedal strokes to open a gap and he\u2019s away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-209406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}