Five victories in five participations for Tadej Pogacar in Il Lombardia

The news is that there is no news. It happened as expected in Il Lombardia, that is, the victory with absolute power of a Tadej Pogacar who accumulates his fifth consecutive triumph, allowing him to equal the record of victories in this race of the legendary Fausto Coppi, in addition to adding his third monument of the season, a feat that only Eddy Merckx had achieved before, in 1974, with the extra of being the first cyclist in history to podium in all of them.

Tadej Pogacar equals Fausto Coppi's record of victories in Il Lombardia

Spectacular, for the exhibition that Tadej Pogacar once again offered us, a performance that is impossible to tire of, and that serves Tadej Pogacar to once again put the finishing touch to another fantastic season by adding his third monument of 2025. It could have been more, but another monster, Mathieu van der Poel, managed to defeat him in Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix.

The race started with tremendous intensity, with a brilliant Quinn Simmons trying to break away and seek his chances of winning the race right from the start. The initial section saw continuous attacks and counterattacks until, on the slopes of the Madonna del Ghisallo, the adventure was consolidated with a numerous group in which names like Pello Bilbao, Filippo Ganna, Louis Vervaeke, or Michael Matthews stood out, apart from Simmons himself.

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They managed to build a generous advantage that exceeded 3 minutes, while behind them, UAE Team Emirates-XRG controlled the race comfortably as the kilometers and the mountainous challenges of this Il Lombardia passed by.

The race situation remained unchanged until the ascent to the Colle de la Crocetta, which began 87 km from the finish, where Quinn Simmons decided it was his moment and accelerated the pace to go solo in search of his chance of victory. Meanwhile, behind him, Bilbao, Ganna, Vervaeke, and Matthews tried to catch up with the American, but had to settle for watching the gap widen.

Despite the quality of the Lidl-Trek cyclist and the more than three minutes of advantage, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG, full of resources, remained calm. They maintained an extremely high pace that left riders of the caliber of Jai Hindley or Ben Healy out of contention right from the start. However, it was not until the Crocetta and Zambla Alta climbs that we would see the definitive offensive.

We had to wait for the last tough climb of the day, the 9 kilometers of Passo di Ganda, to see the UAE Team Emirates-XRG definitively increase the pace and burn the stages until, with less than 37 kilometers to go, Tadej Pogacar launched his usual attack. No one even attempted to follow his wheel, leaving a quartet led by Remco Evenepoel, who tried to make the most of his great cruising speed in the pursuit. Behind him were Paul Seixas, Michael Storer, and Isaac del Toro.

Before reaching the top of Passo di Ganda, Pogacar had already caught Quinn Simmons, who tried to hold on to his wheel for only a few hundred meters. Meanwhile, Remco set a really hard pace that, in the final part of the climb, first dropped Seixas, then Del Toro, and a little later Storer, just as they caught up with Quinn Simmons. These two held on to the Belgian's wheel with the summit in sight, but the American gave up on a subsequent slope.

On the descent of the mountain pass, through sheer force, in an acceleration coming out of one of the corners, Remco distanced himself from Storer and once again found himself alone in pursuit of the Slovenian, but now with a gap of more than a minute and a half, so once again he had to settle for second place in a repetition of the script we saw both in the World Championships and the European Championships. Michael Storer closed the podium with another notable result for a Tudor team that, let's not forget, is a Pro Team, while Quinn Simmons was left wanting after his fantastic Il Lombardia.

Il Lombardia 2025 Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 5h45'53''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +1'48''
3. Michael Storer (Tudor) +3'14''
4. Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) +3'39''
5. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +4'16''
6. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) +4'16''
7. Paul Seixas (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +4'16''
8. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +4'16''
9. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +4'18''
10. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) +4'30''