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Il Lombardia 2024: Pogačar, aiming at the 4th win, is the man to beat

11/10/2024

When Tadej Pogačar is on the start list, any prediction of race favourites begins with him, regardless of the event. And when the race in question is the final Monument of the year, Il Lombardia 2024, which he’s won 3 years in a row, his name gets even greater attention. Adding to this, Pogačar seems to be in peak mental and physical health, having conquered the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the World Championships in a single season. He equalled the achievement of Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche, simply unbeatable so far. No doubt about it, this season will be unrepeatable, no chance to top it in 2025”, Pogačar said after the Giro dell’Emilia last week. Should he secure Il Lombardia as well, it could be argued this is the greatest season ever accomplished by a single rider in history. Joining him, there will be a five-star UAE Team Emirates squad featuring Adam Yates, Marc Hirschi and Pavel Sivakov, each a potential leader on any other team.

His rivals know they’ll have to come up with something extraordinary to beat him, and even that might not be enough. One rider who won’t give up easily is Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). Although the “Classic Race of the Falling Leaves” hasn’t worked in his favour yet, he is far from throwing in the towel: Fausto Masnada (2° in  2021) and  Mattia Cattaneo are ready to back him up and highly motivated to shield their leader from contenders. The sudden withdrawal of Primož Roglič paves the way to Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe riders such as Jai Hindley, Daniel Martinez, Aleksandr Vlasov and young talent Florian Lipowitz, who has shown exceptional growth throughout 2024.

Several riders may press towards a podium goal, as proven by the intense battle behind Pogačar in the over  200 km Giro dell’Emilia. Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) might show incredible legs along with Matteo Jorgenson and Wilco Kelderman (Visma|Lease a Bike), Enric Mas (Movistar), who was narrowly defeated by Pogačar in the 2022 sprint finish,Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).

Italy’s hopes mainly lie on the  Lidl-Trek duo Giulio Ciccone and Andrea Bagioli, 2nd placed rider last year and showing signs of improvement at the final stages of an otherwise unremarkable 2024. Another name to watch out for is Davide Piganzoli (Polti-Kometa), on the podium at the Giro dell’ Emilia and eager to sit at the grown-up table, much like Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè). Also dreaming of a great result are Lorenzo Fortunato e Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty), Davide Formolo (Movistar) and Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla).

Lastly, outsiders worth keeping an eye on are Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL), unexpectedly 2nd placed at Liegi-Bastogne-Liegi, and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility).

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