Paul Seixas celebrates as he wins the Giro di Lombardia. Photograph: AFP
COMO, ITALY:
French prodigy Paul Seixas ended his breakout season as a history-making Monument winner with a “dream” victory on the Giro di Lombardia on Saturday.
At 20 years and 16 days, Seixas turned the youngest ever winner of the Basic of the Falling Leaves and the fourth-youngest winner of a Monument.
“It is loopy, I do not assume I realise it. The whole lot went good,” mentioned a delighted Seixas.
“My team-mates did an ideal, superior job. All of them pushed greater than what they needed to do.
“I had superb legs, I had the sensation immediately was an ideal day. I managed to make the distinction in the intervening time I wished to.”
And he added that “it was a dream” to win this race.
Vuelta a Espana champion Enric Mas took second place, 48sec again, with Italian Giulio Ciccone rounding out the rostrum simply over a minute behind the winner.
Seixas launched a devastating assault on the Civiglio climb with round 19km of the 239km one-day basic remaining, and inside a kilometre, he had dropped all of his remaining challengers.
Olympic and European champion Remco Evenepoel was the primary to flounder, adopted shortly by pre-race favorite Isaac Del Toro after which world champion Brandon McNulty.
Evenepoel and McNulty finally got here residence in fourth and fifth.
With biking celebrity Tadej Pogacar, the winner of the final 5 editions of Lombardia, lacking as a consequence of harm, Seixas took his likelihood to finish an unbelievable season as a Monument winner.
It was solely his third ever Monument — the 5 most prestigious one-day classics on the calendar — having completed seventh at Lombardia final yr and second at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April.
Pogacar had gained each of these.
This success completes a outstanding first full season within the skilled ranks for Seixas.
He was fourth on the Tour de France — his debut Grand Tour — in July, having gained the Tour of the Basque Nation and La Fleche Wallonne earlier within the yr.
He had additionally impressed in second-placed finishes at Strade Bianche, Liege and the Montreal GP.
However he endured a disappointing world championships final month, cramping up within the remaining levels and ending fifteenth, though every week earlier he had gained the time-trial bronze medal behind specialists Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna.
No wanting again
The race began 5 minutes not on time because the riders staged a short protest to attract consideration to security issues following a sequence of incidents involving autos on race routes.
With the dominant Pogacar lacking, it promised to be an exciting race.
Inside the ultimate 60km, American Matteo Jorgenson and McNulty led a harmful counter-attack behind the day’s breakaway.
Evenepoel’s Purple Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team-mate Giulio Pellizzari led the chase and managed the hole, guaranteeing the 5 counter-attackers have been introduced again 15km later.
With 20km left, the breakaway riders had round 30sec on the peloton, now pushed by McNulty’s UAE Emirates XRG team-mate Adam Yates.
Seixas then upped the tempo and shortly handed the remaining breakaway riders, whereas dropping Evenepoel and Del Toro.
With 2km to go to the highest of the Civiglio climb, solely Tom Pidcock and Ciccone have been in a position to comply with Seixas.
However inside one other 500 metres, and nonetheless 18km to experience, he was alone.
Seixas had round 30sec over Ciccone and Mas excessive with the likes of Evenepoel, Del Toro and McNulty greater than a minute adrift.
And from there, he by no means seemed again.
Pidcock got here residence sixth, with Spanish veteran Pello Bilbao taking a formidable seventh place in his remaining race.