Place Name: Viale Felice Cavallotti
Address: Viale Felice Cavallotti 2, 22100 Como Como, Italy
Details: October 12, 2024
The final Monument of the year starts in Bergamo and travels East towards the Forcellino di Bianzano before turning West and finishing in Como after 255KM and 4,700M of climbing. Bergamo was alight with golden sunshine on the terracotta roof tops and autumnal leaves as the riders set off for the last major appointment of the season.
Tobias Bayer of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Connor Swift of Ineos, and Giulio Masotto of Corratec-Vini Fantini got up the road early but the attacks behind did not stop. With 229KM to go, the leaders were caught as the specialist climbers made their moves on the Forcellino di Bianzano. Wilco Kelderman of Visma-Lease a Bike and Rémy Rochas of Groupama-FDJ had a small gap on the descent. A larger group came across with 214KM remaining. Along with Rochas and Kelderman was Axel Laurance of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Matej Mohorič of Bahrain-Victorious, Brandon Rivera of Ineos, Julien Bernard of Lidl-Trek, and Martijn Tusveld of DSM-Firmenich.
On the 11KM Selvino climb, the race continued to evolve with some riders dropping while others bridged to the front. UAE took control in the peloton with 204KM to go to cool things off and settle it down. Over the top of the Selvino, a group of 11 were at the front, most of which had been in the original leading group. Another group of around the same size was in between the front and the peloton. The two front groups came together on the Colle di Berbenno with 169KM to go and a gap to the peloton of 2 minutes 30 seconds. UAE pulled the break within 90 seconds over the top of Valpiana but it expanded once again on the descent to the flat 40KM before the climbing resumed. The break worked very well together, pulling in a double pace line, and got out to over 3 minutes with 120KM to go.
With 94.5KM to go, the break hit the Sella di Osigo with a 4 minutes 20 second advantage. The gap was slowly winched back over Osigo and on to Ghisallo as riders from the break started to drop off. The break went passed the Madonna del Ghisallo with 78KM to go and reduced gap of 2 minutes as UAE increased the pace. Rudy Molard of Groupama-FDJ was first to attack from the break with 66.5KM to go on the rolling lakeside road before the start of the major test of the Colma di Sormano. He was pulled back in but it a sign of the inevitable. Their gap was down to just 1 minute with 55KM to go as they turned left away from Lake Como up the 13KM climb of the Colma di Sormano.
The peloton was down to 20 riders at 48.5KM to go as Pavel Sivakov took his final pedal revolution at the front of the bunch for UAE. In that moment, the final breakaway riders of Einer Rubio of Movistar, Dani Martinez of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Thymen Arensman of Ineos, Eddie Dunbar of Jayco AlUla, and Xandro Meurisse of Alpecin-Deceuninck were caught. Tadej Pogačar of UAE attacked straight away. No one tried to follow immediately but Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-Quickstep, Enric Mas of Movistar, and Lennert Van Eetvelt of Lotto-Dstny emerged as the second group on the road. Pogačar extended his lead to 1 minute 10 seconds as he summited the Sormano on the Evenepoel group. Evenepoel dropped Mas and Van Eetvelt on the descent and with 25KM to go, he was 1 minute 15 seconds behind Pogačar but had 45 seconds on the chasing pair. Sivakov recovered from his earlier efforts and joined the third group on the road containing Mas and Van Eetvelt with 16.5KM to go.
Pogačar handled San Fermo, the final test on the route, with a gap of 3 minutes to Evenepoel and nearly 5 minutes to the third group on the road. Pogačar came into the finish straight in front of huge crowds. After he crossed the line, he took a bow and lifted his bike overhead to cap off one of the most successful seasons of any cyclist in history. It was his 25th win of the year and his fourth Lombardia in a row, something no one has ever done. Evenepoel would come home three minutes later for second place. Behind, just before the top of San Fermo in the third group, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek joined Sivakov, Mas and Van Eetvelt. He caught them all by surprise and attacked over the top. Ion Izagirre of Cofidis joined the group at the bottom of San Fermo as he became a contender for the final spot on the podium. Ciccone maintained his effort however, and took the final corner with 250M to go with enough of a gap to comfortably take third place. Izagirre took the sprint for fourth with Mas, Sivakov, and Van Eetvelt following in that order.
Tags: Il Lombardia, 2024, October, Bergamo, Como, Monument, Tobias Bayer, Connor Swift, Giulio Masotto, Wilco Kelderman, Rémy Rochas, Axel Laurance, Matej Mohorič, Brandon Rivera, Julien Bernard, Martijn Tusveld, Rudy Molard, Pavel Sivakov, Einer Rubio, Dani Martinez, Thymen Arensman, Eddie Dunbar, Xandro Meurisse, Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, Enric Mas, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Giulio Ciccone, Ion Izagirre