Slovene cyclist Tadej Pogačar wins Tour of Lombardy hat trick

 BERGAMO - Slovene cyclist Tadej Pogačar won this year’s edition of the Tour of Lombardy. The race, which dates from 1905, is one of the five so-called Monuments of Cycling. “Il Giro di Lombardia” is an utmost heavy race which requires excellent skills in climbing, descending as well as sprinting. Being scheduled at the very end of the cycling season, after the exhausting Grand Tours and tough World Championships, makes the race even heavier. Whereas Milan-San Remo, the Monument which kicks off the season with a peloton crisp and ambitious, is called “Classica Primavera”, the Tour of Lombardy is called “la corsa delle foglie morte,” the Race of the Fallen Leaves.

 Since 2014, the race’s start and finish alternate between Bergamo and Como. This year’s edition took the participants 238 km over six hills from Como to Bergamo. With the race starting in Como, the fearful “Colle del Ghisallo,” atop of which stands a sanctuary for the patroness of cyclists, the “Madonna del Ghisallo”, would be positioned too early in the race to make a difference. This year, the twofold hill “Passo della Crocetta Dossena” - “Zambia Ala” followed by the “Passo di Ganda” would pull the trigger.

 Tadej Pogačar, the world’s number 1 cyclist, won the last two editions of “Il Lombardia.” This year, however, his compatriot, Primož Roglič, would be the main contender. In the preceding Italian races which build up to this Monument, Roglič had beaten Pogačar twice. On top of the personal competition, also their teams, respectively Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates, were competing to finish the season on top of the UCI ranking.

 Barely a minute after the start of the race, Belgian cyclist Thomas De Gendt broke away. Nine riders would join him. The peloton, however, controlled the breakaway group, never allowing the group to lead by more than four minutes. Halfway through the race, the peloton halved this lead to a bare two minutes. By then, the race’s average speed had been an impressive 40,1 kilometres/hour!

 With the breakaway group within reach, Irish rider Ben Healy attacked from within the peloton. He first reached the group and then left every single rider of it behind. His attempt would take him up to the “Passo di Ganda”. Yet, on this heavy climb, which is 9,2 kilometres long and has an average gradient of 7,3 per cent, the Jumbo-Visma team organised a chase and soon caught brave Healy. Immediately, a small group of cyclists broke away. Each of its riders was a potential winner: besides the Slovenians Pogačar and Roglič, there were the British brothers Simon and Adam Yates, Russian Aleksandr Vlasov, Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, Spanish Carlos Rodríguez, Canadian Michael Woods and the Italians Fausto Masnada and Andrea Bagioli.

 At 34 km from the finish line, Adam Yates attacked in order to launch his team mate Pogačar. Roglič initially could not follow, but then managed to join both UAE Team Emirates cyclists. Then Pogačar accelerated. Surprisingly, a tenacious Vlasov could follow him. Moreover, one after the other breakaway rider managed to join the twosome before the top of the climb. An uphill acceleration is Pogačar’s trademark and has made him win several races. The races during the last couple of weeks had suggested that Pogačar, who suffered multiple fractures to his left wrist in April and could not properly train for months, would this end of the season not be as strong as he had been the past four years.

 But then, in full descent of the “Passo di Ganda”, taking big risks, Pogačar kept speeding. At the end of the descent, with 18 km to go, he had built a lead of 34 seconds. This lead would gradually grow to 45 seconds. Victory seemed inevitable: only Pogačar could prevent Pogačar from winning this year’s Tour of Lombardy. Yet, at barely 10 km from the finish line, he suddenly touched his right leg and started hitting it. Then he did the same to left leg. Pogačar was having a cramp in his legs! In cycling, this usually makes a rider abandon the race, often in a couple of seconds time after the cramps have started. Would the two-time winner lose this edition? The Slovene champion kept remarkably going strong. At the foot of the “Colle Aperto”, the last, short climb, his lead had even grown to one minute. Finally, Tadej Pogačar finished solo in the streets of Bergamo. Nearly a minute later, Andrea Bagioli edged Primož Roglič out for the second spot..

 Pogačar’s strong performance triggers multiple comparisons. Only two other cyclists have won “Il Lombardia” after a solo of more than 30 km.  Only two other cyclists, one of them the legendary Fausto Coppi, have won the Tour of Lombardy three times in a row. Pogačar also is the third cyclist in history to win in one season both the Tour of Lombardy and the Tour of Flanders, another Monument. Barely 25 years old, with a track record of 63 wins, Tadej Pogačar already is a legend of cycling.

 jp-md