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Pinot wins first Monument with solo Il Lombardia victory

Woods 13th in the Race of the Falling Leaves

October 13, 2018
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Thibaut Pinot may have won stages of all three Grand Tours and stood on the podium of the Tour de France, but on Saturday, the Frenchman claimed his biggest one day race, the last Monument of the year, Il Lombardia. Winner of Milano-Torino on Wednesday, Pinot outdueled reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali and soloed to the line in Como. Michael Woods finished in the top-15.

The Course
At 241-km in length, the eye-pleasing Race of the Falling Leaves route traveled from Bergamo to Como, exploring the arms of Lake Como. There were six climbs on the day, with four packed into the final 70-km: Madonna Del Ghisallo (9.1-km of 5.2 percent), recently reinstated Colma di Sormano (6.7-km of 8.7 percent with a 1.9-km section of 15.8 percent), Civiglio (3.9-km of 10.4 percent peaking with 14-km to go), and finally the moderate Monte Olimpino (1.7-km of 5.2 percent) cresting 5-km before the finish line.



The Breakaway

A group of eight flashed away soon after the flag in Bergamo, pulling out a maximum gap of 6:00. Alejandro Valverde’s Movistar and Pinot’s FDJ pulled the octet to within 2:31 by the start of Ghisallo. The climb up to the famed cycling chapel splintered the breakaway.

Endgame

The breakaway was caught on the beginning of the Sormano, where LottoNL-Jumbo took over. Primoz Roglic powered away on the Wall section of the climb. Nibali’s Bahrain-Merida worked to keep the Slovene within sight. Nibali and Pinot bridged over and the duo dropped Roglic.

Struggling on the climb, Romain Bardet came to grief when he suffered what Nibali did at the Tour de France: getting tangled with a camera strap.

https://twitter.com/wcstats/status/1051102857150255106

Nibali, Pinot and Roglic pushed ahead on the descent. There were 14-flat kilometres before the penultimate Civiglio climb and it was there than Egan Bernal bridged over. The new breakaway kept increasing its advantage over a 16-strong chasing group that included EF-Drapac’s Michael Woods and Rigoberto Uran and world champion Valverde.

On Civiglio Pinot and Nibali dropped Roglic and, eventually, Bernal. Woods and Tim Wellens led the chase, Valverde eventually fading back.

Pinot tried to shake Nibali with 15-km remaining. Near the crest of Civiglio, the duo led Bernal by 25-seconds and 32-seconds over the Woods group.

Finally, Pinot unhitched Nibali, the Italian losing a heap of time very quickly. With 10-km to go, the Frenchman held a 24-second lead over the 2017 champion. After getting caught by the chasers, Nibali attacked again to earn second place. Dylan Teuns (Belgium/BMC) was third, the best out of a seven rider group.

Pinot has experienced the up and downs of cycling this season. He was in third place at the Giro d’Italia and grew violently ill on the penultimate stage, withdrawing before the procession into Milan the next day after spiraling down the GC. In 2018 he won two stages of the Vuelta a España while coming sixth, and took the GC title of the Tour of the Alps. Pinot is the first to win both Milano-Torino and Il Lombardia in the same year since 2002.

10-10-2018 Milano - Torino; 2018, Groupama - Fdj; Pinot, Thibaut; Superga;
Pinot also won Milano-Torino on Wednesday; he’s the first rider in 16-years to win both in the same year.

Woods was 13th.

2018 Il Lombardia
1) Thibaut Pinot (France/Groupama-FDJ) 5:53:32
2) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Bahrain-Merida) +0:32
3) Dylan Teuns (Belgium/BMC) +0:43
13) Michael Woods (Canada/EF-Drapac) +1:31