Tadej Pogačar in the legend: five consecutive Lombards

Everyone knew it could end like this, and Tadej Pogačar did not disappoint expectations: the Cannibal 2.0 won the Tour of Lombardy for the fifth consecutive time, one more than the Campionissimo Fausto Coppi, who also won five but “only” four in a row, from 1946 to 1949, and the fifth one he won later in 1954.

Pogačar took off with 36.6 km to go on the Ganda Pass, and in less than 3 km he caught and pulled away from U.S. Quinn Simmons, the last survivor of the initial breakaway, and sprinted all alone, in his own way, to the finish line in Bergamo.

The Slovenian star was 1’48” ahead of his most die-hard rival, Belgian Remco Evenepoel, second like last year, who was blocked for a few seconds by bikes blocking the road on the Bergamo Alta climb in the finale but already had an unbridgeable gap of over a minute.

At 3’14” came third Australian Michael Storer, fourth Simmons at 3’39”. First of the Italians Christian Scaroni, 15th at 5’21”. Pogačar has participated in five Lombardias and won them all, he also won the tenth Monumental Classic: he is the third in history to finish in double figures after Belgians Eddy Merckx (19) and Roger De Vlaeminck (11).