Tadej Pogacar as Fausto Coppi: four consecutive Lombards
Tadej Pogacar as Fausto Coppi: four consecutive Lombardy
Tadej Pogacar stages yet another seasonal show by overcoming the 118ª edition of the Giro di Lombardia, 252 km from Bergamo to Como. The world champion è started halfway up the Colma di Sormano climb, 48 km from the finish, and no opponent saw him again until after the finish.
Double Olympic champion Remce Evenepoel, who was on the Slovenian’s wheel when he è sprinted, did not try at all to keep up with him but è nevertheless managed in turn to pull away from all the others, finishing second with the huge gap of 3’16”.
Third at 4’31” was placed a good Giulio Ciccone, who after being in difficulty on the climb recovered and with 3 km to go slightly broke away from the chasing group of which he was part.
Pogacar lost only two races this year among those he competed in, Milan-San Remo (third) and the GrandPremio du Quebec (seventh). Otherwise, he triumphed in Strade Bianche, Tour of Catalonia, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, World Championships and Giro dell’Emilia.
Finally, today, he equaled a legendary record that goes back 75 years: that of Fausto Coppi’s four consecutive victories in the Tour of Lombardy, who then won a fifth in 1954. What’s more, Pogacar in the “classic of the dead leaves” è is undefeated: all four times he has competed it, from 2021 to the present, he has won it.
"Every victory è is special, and today’s is even more so given the work my team did,” Pogacar said immediately after the finish. We were at the front of the peloton all day to prevent the breakaway from taking too much of a lead, and then once we got close to the outriders, I launched my attack right where we planned it. I knew that if I reached the top of the Colma di Sormano with enough of a lead I could defend it over the next 40 km. I pushed hard and in the finale I enjoyed the embrace of the crowd. This is not è the time to make rankings on who is the strongest runner in history, we will see at the end of his career".
