Tadej Pogačar won his third straight Il Lombardia presented by Crédit Agricole, something that only Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi had done before him, so it hadn’t happen since 1949. The Slovenian soloed with 30km to go at the beginning of the downhill of Passo Ganda. He cramped with 12km to go but managed to keep his advantage on the Colle Aperto, the last climb in Bergamo that was extremely crowded on the special occasion of the farewell of Thibaut Pinot, the race winner in 2018. Two days after he won GranPiemonte, Italy’s Andrea Bagioli won the sprint of the group of six riders who reached the finish line within one minute after Pogacar. The 2023 Giro d’Italia winner Primož Roglič rounded out the podium, making the top 3 of Il Lombardia presented by Crédit Agricole for the first time.
The winner of the 117th Il Lombardia presented by Crédit Agricole, Tadej Pogačar, said: “It’s been a great day overall. The final climb was super hard. There were a lot of things going on. It was a really tough finish and I’m super happy to come solo to the finish today. It gave me a lot of emotions, especially being alone on the road. To win this kind of race, you need a great body, an excellent condition, a good mental and a bit of luck too. To get the third consecutive victory is unbelievable. It’s a dream race for any rider, being the last one of the season. It’s a beautiful race. When I cramped, I was hoping for the group behind to not cooperate so well but I managed to go over the climb. I think it was the hardest of my three victories at Il Lombardia. It’s been a strange season for me with an injury but a really great season, especially after today’s win and we also top the teams ranking for this year and that was a big goal for us”.
