Il Lombardia: Paul Seixas puts in stunning solo ride to claim first Monument

French prodigy Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) became the youngest winner in Il Lombardia history on Sunday, going solo 18km from the line to take a stunning win and cap an outstanding season.

The 20-year-old had his team working on the front all day, but Seixas himself stayed patient until the crucial moment, putting in one big acceleration on the Civiglio climb that no one could follow for more than a minute or two. From there, despite being chased by some of the strongest riders in the world, the Frenchman could not be reeled back in.

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the peloton staged a protest about safety by delaying the start, business as usual resumed with the attacks starting straight out of the neutral zone. Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) was the very first rider to attack, but the day’s break wasn’t going to get away that easily, and the battle continued all the way up the opening climbs.

The riders were: Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), Michael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost), Maxime Decomble (Groupama-FDJ United), Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility), Andrea Mifsud (Polti VisitMalta), George Bennett, Pau Marti (NSN), Fausto Masnada (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL), Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep), Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek).

Three riders in a line, O'Connor at the front

Ben O’Connor leads an early move (Image credit: Getty Images)

The longest climb of the day, the Valpiana, passed without much action, with the breakaway riders managing their efforts and keeping the gap stable towards the 150km to go mark. On the long descent, however, the breakaway actually managed to grow their advantage over the peloton, stretching the gap out to three minutes for the first time all day as the still 14-strong group took on the long flat before the next climb.

The start of the climb of the Madonna del Ghisallo (Image credit: Getty Images)

The break hit the Madonna del Ghisallo 2:30 ahead of the peloton, with the stronger climbers quickly coming to the fore and O’Connor settling the early pace. His efforts saw Tiberi among the first riders to be dropped, and soon hardly anyone could hold onto the Australian’s wheel, with him and Leemreize pulling out a gap on the early slopes. Leonard was able to pace back up to them, making it three in the lead, but Leemreize soon dropped back as the leaders’ gap fell back below two minutes.

Brandon McNulty on the attack (Image credit: Getty Images)

The attacks began near the top when Louis Barre (Visma-Lease a Bike) led out a big move from Matteo Jorgenson, with his compatriots Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and McNulty on his wheel, plus XDS Astana’s Christian Scaroni. The quartet went clear over the top of the climb, and though they didn’t have a huge gap on the peloton, it left Evenepoel, Red Bull and Decathlon with work to do on the descent.

All the favourite teams were amassed at the front of the peloton, but there was still a lot of work to be done to actually bring the leaders back if the big names were to contest the finish. On the first time up the San Fermo della Battaglia climb, Pellizzari hit the front once again to wind things up for Evenepoel, with McNulty, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Seixas behind them.

Seixas makes the winning move (Image credit: Getty Images)

Seixas’ move was not explosive, but a steady winding up of his speed was an effort that only Pidcock and Ciccone could follow, with Evenepoel and Del Toro noticeably off the pace. It didn’t take long for Seixas to drop his companions, too, and the young Frenchman went solo with 18km remaining. He went over the top of the climb with a gap of 25 seconds on Ciccone and Mas, which was not insurmountable, but Seixas looked much stronger than the riders trying to chase him down, and his gap only grew as he settled into his rhythm.

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Pos

Rider

Time

Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM