2024 Il Lombardia Race Report: Tadej Pogačar has won Il Lombardia for the fourth time in a row. The World champion rode away from the peloton on the Colma di Sormano and then soloed to the seventh monument victory of his career. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) left the other chasers for second place and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) came from behind to take third, four and a half minutes after Pogačar.
The final big win in a stunning season for Tadej Pogačar
The Route
In recent years, Il Lombardia has alternated between Como and Bergamo for the finish. This year, the finish is again in Como and Bergamo will host the start. Bergamo is one of the oldest cities in Lombardy and has Etruscan, Celtic and Roman influences. Bergamo is a real cycling city and the Giro d’Italia has visited many times. It is also the birthplace of a number of famous Italian cyclists, including Claudio Corti, Eddy Mazzoleni, Fausto Masnada and Lorenzo Rota, the last two are still in the peloton at the moment. Masnada came close to winning the Tour of Lombardy three years ago, but was beaten in the sprint by Tadej Pogačar. From Bergamo, the riders head east and then northwest. The race then hits the Forcellino di Bianzano (6.3km at 5.1%), the Ganda (9.4km at 7%), Colle di Berbenno (4.5km at 6.2%) and the climb to Valpiana (10.4km at 6.1%). These climbs should see off the riders who left their climbing legs at home, but the race will probably not start yet. The finale starts about 90 kilometres from the finish, with the Madonna del Ghisallo (8.7km at 5.3%). This year it is not climbed from Bellagio, the classic side, but from Asso. In 2022, the race then went straight to the San Fermo della Battaglia, but this year there is the Colma di Sormano (12.8km at 6.7%) first. This is the side that the riders usually descend after climbing the shorter, but very steep Muro di Sormano. This climb was last included in the route in 2020, where Remco Evenepoel crashed over a bridge and broke his pelvis and had months off the bike to recover. The summit of the Colma di Sormano is 42 kilometres from the finish. Most of the climbing is over as the Civiglio is not on the route this year due to roadworks. After the Sormano there is flat section before San Fermo della Battaglia (2.9km at 6.6%). Once over that climb, there is just over 5 kilometres to the finish line in Como.
*** Il Lombardia 2024: Route Change ***
Due to heavy rains in recent days, which have caused landslides and flooding, the route and the finish in Como have undergone the following changes. At km 37.5 the race, having passed the town of Cene, will turn towards Albino, and not Gazzaniga as per the original route, to tackle the Selvino climb from Nembro, which will replace the Passo di Ganda. The originally planned route will be resumed at km 57, after the climb of Selvino.
2024 Il Lombardia new route
Due to the risk of flooding of Lake Como, the final part of the race will also be modified. The finish line will not be located on Lungo Lario Trento, but in Viale Felice Cavallotti, where the race will turn inside the last km. The total distance of Il Lombardia presented by Crédit Agricole will be 255km. The starting times remain unchanged, with the start meeting point and signature check from 9.00 to 10.30, lining up and city parade at 10.35, and the race start at 10.40.
World champion, Tadej Pogačar at the start
Before the start, Tadej Pogačar was the No.1 favourite. The World champion had won the last three Lombardias, the fifth and final monument of the year. A few riders thought that escaping early would be the way to beat the Slovenian and so many riders tried to make the break. The attacks were shut down by the peloton, so there was no ‘break of the day’ even after the Forcellino di Bianzano. On the climb to Selvino, 7 riders managed to escape the clutches of the peloton.
Has the season been too long for Remco Evenepoel?
The group only managed to make a gap of 20 seconds, but the peloton didn’t want to let them go. Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike) was one of the strong workers in the break, along with Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), Brandon Rivera (INEOS Grenadiers), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) and Martijn Tusveld (dsm-firmenich PostNL) at the front. Some teams had missed the move and were not happy with the race situation.
The whole Lidl-Trek team were Bauke Mollema at the start in Bergamo
Several riders tried to cross to the leading group: Harold Mártin López (Astana Qazaqstan), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Daniel Felipe Martínez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) and Matteo Fabbro (Polti Kometa) joined managed to join the front group which now had 13 riders. Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale had no riders in the front group, so they sent Bastien Tronchon up the road. The Frenchman took some other riders with him. There was now a group of 11 with Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers), Tiesj Benoot (Visma | Lease a Bike), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step). The gaps were still small as they started the Colle di Berbenno.
And they’re off at the start of the last Monument of 2024
At the start of the climb to Valpiana, the chase group managed to catch the men at the front. There was now a large group more than 2 minutes ahead of the peloton. UAE Team Emirates now increased the pace to control the gap. In the leading group, they lifted their pace to hold the peloton at around 1:30. This saw off Antonio Tiberi.
Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) was one of the early attackers
After the climb to Valpiana, UAE Team Emirates eased off the pace a bit. But 2 minutes didn’t look enough even for a group of this size. On this flat zone, the break managed to extend their lead to a more healthy 4 minutes. Tadej Pogačar put his men to work again. Led by Jan Christen and Rafal Majka, the peloton pulled back a minute.
The break of the day was eventually quite big and included: Mohorič, Kelderman, Dunbar, Meurisse, Mártin, Caruso, Rochas, Molard, Rubio, Martínez, Bernard, Tusveld, Vermaerke, Fabbro, Benoot, Tronchon, Arensman, Rivera, Mühlberger, Vansevenant and Halland Johanessen
With 85 kilometres to go, the first attacks came in the leading group. The Madonna del Ghisallo inspired Thymen Arensman to ‘give it a go’, but this wasn’t the start of the race finale yet. In the leading group, most riders were holding back, but UAE were powering the peloton towards the action end of the race.
Tom Pidcock was removed form the start list by his team at the last minute, but Brandon Rivera wanted to show the INEOS Grenadiers colours
At the top of the Madonna del Ghisallo, Majka had taken a minute off the lead. The 20 leaders now only had 2 minutes with 75 kilometres to go. Harold Martín López had been dropped from the leading group on the climb. The race situation wasn’t really changing, so the race was now expected to fire up on the Colma di Sormano (12.8km at 6.7%), the longest climb of the day.
When will Pogačar make his move?
The peloton didn’t let the break get too far away
The weather was better than it had been all week
Lake Como was calm
The iconic Madonna Ghisallo
There it is…
… and he was gone!
The usual view of Tadej Pogačar
The battle for second place
Just another solo to the finish
Evenepoel left the others to take second place
# All the news from Lombardia in Monday’s EUROTRASH. #
Il Lombardia Result:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 6:04:58
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 3:16
3. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 4:31
4. Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Cofidis at 4:34
5. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar
6. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE Team Emirates
7. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto Dstny
8. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-EasyPost at 4:58
9. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama – FDJ
10. Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck.
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