Il Lombardia 2026

The road

At the start

Pogačar's race, without Pogačar

Bergamo, after five straight wins for one man, and that man is not here: Pogačar is out. Remco Evenepoel, second to him a year ago and European champion six days ago, is the best of the rest on paper. Brandon McNulty starts in rainbow and will be marked for it. Paul Seixas was seventh here at nineteen; his Decathlon team mean to make the day as hard as they can before the three climbs around Como.

How it was won

1. 1208 km to go

   A protest, then fourteen away

   The peloton holds the start in Bergamo in a protest over safety, and when the race finally goes the attacks begin straight out of the neutral zone. Five get clear midway up the Selvino and nine more join them over the top: Ben O'Connor, Antonio Tiberi, Michael Leonard and Victor Campenaerts among them.

2. 260 km to go

   Americans over the Ghisallo

   O'Connor shreds the break on the Madonna del Ghisallo while Red Bull and UAE fight for the front of the bunch behind. Near the top Louis Barre leads out Matteo Jorgenson, with Quinn Simmons, the world champion Brandon McNulty and Christian Scaroni on his wheel, and they go over the summit clear. Red Bull send Roglič to chase, and a few kilometres inside the last 50 the move is back.

3. 327 km to go

   Pellizzari winds it up

   Into the Como circuit with the break still 1:20 ahead, and Simmons is stopped by a mechanical just as it matters. On the first San Fermo della Battaglia, Giulio Pellizzari takes the front for Remco Evenepoel and drives to the top, McNulty, Pidcock, Del Toro and Seixas lined up behind him. By 20 kilometres out the gap is 40 seconds.

4. 418 km to go

   Seixas goes

   The Civiglio, 4.2 kilometres at nearly ten percent, and Paul Seixas starts to wind it up. It is not a jump but a slow, terrible turning of the screw: Leonard, the last of the break, is swept up; Evenepoel slides to the back and off it; Del Toro cannot hold. Only Pidcock and Ciccone stay with him, and then not even them. Eighteen kilometres from Como, a twenty-year-old is alone at the front of the last Monument of the year.

5. 517 km to go

   Twenty-five seconds over the top

   Seixas crests the Civiglio with 25 seconds on Ciccone and Mas. Pidcock has gone into the red following him and pays for it. On the descent the Frenchman settles into his rhythm, and the gap only grows.

6. 65 km to go

   Mas leaves Ciccone

   The chase will not work: Ciccone and Mas look at each other, and on the last San Fermo the Vuelta champion goes on alone. It is too late. Over the top, with five kilometres of descent to come, he is still nearly a minute behind.

7. 7At the line

   The youngest Lombardia winner

   Seixas comes down carefully, not believing it until the climb is behind him, and rides into Como alone two weeks after his twentieth birthday: the youngest winner in the race's history. Mas is second at 48 seconds, Ciccone third, and Evenepoel sprints the chase for fourth.

The result