Cycling: after the Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar takes the Tour of Lombardy

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Slovenian Tadej Pogacar won the Tour of Lombardy on Saturday, ahead of Briton Adam Yates and Slovenian Primoz Roglic.

Already winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April and, for the second time, of the Tour de France in July, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE) won Saturday, October 9, in Bergamo, the 115e edition of the Tour of Lombardy, the last great classic of the cycling season.

The Slovenian won the two-sided sprint over the Italian Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck) after 239 kilometers.

Briton Adam Yates (Ineos) took the 3e place, at 51 seconds, ahead of the Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo), the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and the French Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck) and Romain Bardet (DSM).

The race, under the autumn sun, took shape in the passo di Ganda (9.2 km at 7.3%), at the entrance of the last forty kilometers, where the peloton still dense despite the hilly course until there has been drastically reduced.

“It’s just crazy to end the season like this ! “

Pogacar, who went on the attack thirty-five kilometers from the finish, secured a lead of around thirty seconds over a group of favorites made up of Adam Yates, Alaphilippe, Roglic, Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation ), Valverde, Bardet, Gaudu, Masnada and Vingegaard (Jumbo).

Behind the winner of the Tour, Masnada set off on his own on a counter-attack on roads he knows perfectly well. The Bergamasque joined him at the bottom of the long and winding descent, fifteen kilometers from the finish, but did not relay him afterwards.

For lack of agreement, the group of pursuers allowed the gap to widen again (45 sec per 6 km). Up front, Pogacar and Masnada stayed together on the last hill, to reach the upper town of Bergamo, before the Slovenian easily took over the Italian in the sprint.

“It’s just crazy to end the season like this!” Pogacar exulted. “When I attacked, I thought others would come with me.”

The 23-year-old Slovenian is the first Tour de France winner to go on to win the Tour of Lombardy since Bernard Hinault in 1979.

With AFP