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Tadej Pogačar dazzled in what is likely his last race of the season, dealing another hammer blow to his rivals to win his fourth successive Il Lombardia.
The Slovenian notched up his second win in the rainbow jersey, attacking 6.5km from the top of the day’s biggest climb, the Colma di Sormano.
He immediately distanced all of his rivals, with Olympic champion Remco Evenpoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Enric Mas (Movistar Team) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) chasing hard but making no dent whatsoever in his growing lead.
Pogačar stomped home 3:16 clear of Evenepoel, capturing a remarkable seventh win out of his last eight days of racing. It also extended his season tally to a staggering 25 victories this year.
“Every victory is special and today also. The team works so hard all year for all the victories we achieved and today is no different,” he said.
“It was a big day for us, a long race, a hard race, and it was all dependent on our team. I think we did a super good job. I am super happy to win with the team.”
That squad worked to control things and to keep the distance to the break manageable by the time they hit the Colma di Sormano.
Pogačar confirmed that things played out just as they hoped.
“We panned it like this,” he said of the location for his surge.
“The race is so hard that in the end the last 40km is more or less man to man. I knew if I had a decent gap at the top I can manage to come to the finish. But you never know if it happens or not.”
Massive break tries to foil world champ
The final classic of the season started in Bergamo before a 255km battle over 4,750 vertical meters. There were eight categorized climbs on the cards, with the biggest, the Colma di Sormano, 13.1km in length and peaking 42km from the end.
A flurry of early attacks led to a move by Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ). The duo pushed clear from a short-lived break with just under 225km remaining.
They went clear on the descent of the Forcellino de Bianzano, and were joined soon afterwards by Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) and Martijn Tusveld (DSM-firmenich-PostNL).
They were in turn chased and joined on the Selvino, the day’s second climb, by Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) and Matteo Fabbro (Polti-Kometa).
Further reinforcements arrived when Movistar’s Einer Rubio, Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Dani Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Harold Martin Lopez (Astana-Qazaqstan), Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale) also got acros.
Rivera and Prodhomme were then dropped, leaving a dozen riders out front with a lead of more than two minutes.
A large chase group successfully bridged with just under 170km remaining. The American Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-firmenich-PostNL) was present, as well as Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Gregor Muhlberger (Movistar), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike).
They were 2:15 clear at the bottom of the Valpiana climb and still had 1:35 of that advantage going over the top.
The rainbow appears
Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates squad was content to give them some room. This enabled the breakaway riders to push out their lead to almost five minutes with 100km to go. However the advantage was pared away after that and was just 1:07 at the start of the Colma di Sormano, 54.9km from the finish.
Adam Yates was driving the chase behind, then his UAE Team Emirates teammate Pavel Sivakov took over.
The breakaway started attacking each other. Meurisse moved clear and was joined by Arensman. Pogačar was lurking with intent and finally launched 6.5km from the top of the climb, just as the last of the day’s break was caught.
He immediately got a gap, with Evenepoel and Mas the next chasers but incapable of matching his speed.
-48,4 kms
Pogačar ha attaccato?
MAMMA MIA SÌHas Pogačar attacked?
HELL YEAH#iLombardia presented by @CA_Ita pic.twitter.com/rs2bCblENR— Il Lombardia (@Il_Lombardia) October 12, 2024
They were joined by Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) but continued losing ground to Pogačar. He went over the summit 1:07 ahead of the three man chasers, led by a frustrated Evenepoel who felt Mas and Van Eetvelt were not contributing enough.
The Belgian immediately went clear on the descent but while he took all sorts of risks on the way down, he lost another handful of seconds to the race leader.
“It was really fast and then a little bit up and down,” Pogačar later said.
“I tried to push to gain a little bit more seconds to also win the mental game on this chase. I tried to push as hard as possible and then it was one by one to the finish.”
An ever-growing advantage
With 25km remaining Evenepoel was 1:16 behind, while Mas and Van Eetvelt were two minutes back.
Those gaps continued to stretch out, making a likely win become a certainty. The Slovakian was 2:50 in front of Evenepoel at the summit of the day’s final climb, that of San Fermo. This made the remaining five kilometers an extended victory procession to the line.
“I was just enjoying the crowds,” Pogačar said of his thoughts at that moment.
Behind, teammate Pavel Sivakov was with Mas and Van Eetvelt but dropped them on the climb. He was riding for third but a regrouping and then an attack by Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) yielded that result.
He was 4:31 back, three seconds ahead of Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Mas, Sivakov and Van Eetvelt.
American rider Neilson Powless (EF Education EasyPost) was best of the rest, leading in a chase group 4:58 adrift. He won Gran Piemonte two days ago but recovered sufficiently to take a fine eighth place.
