For the final time this season, the Pro Tour peloton, and the wildcard teams, line up at the start-line of a race. Today's route takes us from the city of Varese to that of Bergamo, covering an exact distance of 255.5 kilometres. This won't be a race for the faint of heart, or legs. There is still quite a bit to be decided in the standings, especially in the relegation battle.
The race director is happy with proceedings and we're off for the 2019 edition of the Giro di Lombardia.
Favourites
MON
HIL
STA
RES
ACC
Spilak
84
81
79
80
73
Bakelants
74
83
80
77
77
Ponzi
73
84
77
72
80
Hagen
70
85
81
74
79
Sagan
74
83
78
74
76
Lutsenko
73
83
76
73
81
Pluchkin
85
75
78
78
74
Morton
84
76
79
78
67
De Bie
71
83
77
76
75
Guldhammer
81
77
74
75
76
Van Garderen
72
82
78
75
79
Skujins
70
83
80
77
76
Lopez
78
79
74
73
76
Mohoric
71
83
78
72
77
Preidler
80
78
71
77
69
Three riders get away almost as soon as the flag drops. They are:
Lastra Hadi Tolhoek
A few kilometres later, five more riders decide to test the peloton's legs. They are:
Oss Bekmanis Vlasov Bridges De Buyst
The peloton don't seem too perturbed by the developments, and let the riders get away.
The eight riders come together after 27 km of racing, with the five man chase group apparently having a hard time chasing down the initial attackers.
200 km to go. The peloton have started climbing the Madonna del Ghisallo. Many teams are sharing the load at the front but no one is really chasing the break for the moment.
Fast forward about 40 kilometres. The break are traversing Pescate. Their lead is up above 6 minutes.
The peloton are starting the Colle Dei Pasta now. The middle sections of the race have been uneventful. The long flat section is over and what follows is mostly climbing from here on in.
The peloton trail by 4'26" at the moment.
90 km left. The break start the Colle Gallo. They're losing time fast now with their lead already down to 3'32".
Eight riders, including four from Swisslion, fall off the back of the peloton on the Gallo. None of the favourites are in trouble though.
68 km to go. Bennelong take over from Isostar at the front of the pack. The latter have done a lot of work in the last 30 kilometres. Evonik are also starting to get themselves organized at the front. The 176 rider strong peloton trail by 2'53".
De Buyst is dropped from the break as we approach the top of Ganda, the highest point of today's race.
Isostar are back at the front of the peloton. Popo4Ever have positioned one man at the front as well. The peloton is down to 62 riders, with this climb causing major difficulties to a lor of riders. Mohoric, Gastauer, Teuns, Boswell, Poljanski, Aru, Vasyliv, Konrad, Padun and more have been dropped in the last few kilometers.
De Buyst is caught by the peloton.
Bridges can't keep up anymore on the steepest part of the climb.
Bridges is caught before the summit. The peloton have increased in size with most of the big names returning. Konrad and Padun haven't been able to get back though.
Bekmanis is now dropped. Lastra is as well. Tolhoek is teetering on the back-end of the break.
55 km to go. The peloton start the descent of Ganda. Mohoric, Gastauer, Keinath, Konig, Kirsch, Gidich, Vosekalns and more have been dropped. 37 riders remain.
The three man surviving group at the front of the race reach Bracca. Tolhoek is trying to get back after getting dropped on the last climb. Lastra and Bekmanis are stuck in no man's land.
Lastra and Bekmanis are caught on the descent.
Oss pulls away from his breakaway companions on the early slopes of Berbenno.
Behind, Tolhoek is caught. The peloton trail by 2'2".
Hadi then drops Vlasov but the peloton has almost caught up to them both.
Ponzi is the first to attack. This is a bold move with 29 kilometres to go.
The pack responds, catching Vlasov in the process. 29 km remain.
Bakelants makes the next acceleration, allowing the attentive peloton to catch up with Ponzi and Hadi. Oss too, is eventually caught as a fallout from this move.
17 riders, Oss included, remain in the front group.
The next group contains Buchmann, Karnulin, Henao Montoya, Sosnitskiy, Salinas, Polanc, Vlasov and Pluchkin. Further behind is Bongiorno, Arndt, Aru, Ginanni, Kastrantas and Bayly.
Spilak attacks! Bakelants and Guldhammer latch on as the pack tries to react.
A whole 10 kilometers later, and with 16 km to go, the three leaders manage to pull out just a 15 second gap. The pack has managed this attack well.
They are caught a kilometre later. Besides the three attackers, this group also has Hagen, Sagan, Morton, Pluchkin, Ponzi, Skuijns, A. Yates, Lutsenko, Preidler, De Bie, Barguil, Lopez, Olivier, Formolo and Oss, still hanging on after the breakaway exertions.
This group hits the slopes of Bergamo Alta, which the final climb of the day. Today's winner will come from here as the next group is more than 2 minutes behind now. 6 kilometres left.
Hagen, Ponzi and Lutsenko attack almost immediately. Adam Yates tries to catch up. He realises that Lutsenko getting away more or less means relegation for his team!
The three initial attackers reach the summit of the Alta together, with Yates still chasing ahead of the larger group.
Bad news for Barguil as he's dropped and with less than 5 km to go, it looks like his chances are over.
Hagen accelerates. Ponzi responds and manages to drop Lutsenko. 4 km to go.
Th 13 rider peloton are nearly a minute back!
Yates keeps up his heroic solo effort to make the gap to the front trio. He trails by around 25 seconds.
3 km left, The trio are together again. Yates is at 21 seconds while the larger group behind is at 48 seconds.
A kilometre later and Yates is still trying to make up the gap.
Yates manages to close the gap to 16 seconds with 1500 meters remaining. The peloton is a further 26 seconds behind.
Ponzi leads under the Red Kite. Yates has closed in further and starts his sprint from further out. No choice really! The peloton have closed in as well, and there's now a physical gap in the group.
Bakelants, Pluchkin, Spilak, Guldhammer, Skuijns, Sagan and Morton are in the front half of the split pack.
500 meters to go. the front three are still not sprinting but the chasing eight are! The group behind has been gapped.
The leaders finally open up a 100 meters later. Lutsenko leads Ponzi and Hagen. Yates is caught behind.
Looking ahead from Yates, we see that Ponzi has taken the lead with 200 meters to go. Guldhammer leads the chase as Bakelants looks to have burned himself out.
Ponzi is marginally ahead as we hit the 100 meters to go mark. Can he get back-to-back wins in this race?
The answer is no! Lutsenko wrestles the lead back from our defending champion. Hagen too passes Ponzi. Zoom in and look at their jersey numbers - 111, 1 and 11. If ever there was a more fitting battle to end the PT season!
Hagen edges ahead with 20 meters left!
And Hagen wins Giro di Lomardia 2019! An incredible see-saw battle in the final kilometres is decided right at the line.
Lutsenko finishes 2nd.
We get a look at Hagen's celebration as Ponzi crosses the line in 3rd.
In the chasing group, Sagan leads Pluchkin as we approach the line. Guldhammer and Spilak are also in with a shout for 4th place.
Pluchkin just pips Sagan at the line to claim 4th. Spilak is 6th, ahead of Guldhammer. Skuijns is 8th.
Bakelants has enough left to outsprint Morton for 9th.
A valiant effort from Yates gets him only an 11th place. That's tough on him and his team.
A word of appreciation for Oss, who spent the day in the break, hung on to the leaders after getting caught, and recovered enough to beat some of them to 12th place. De Bie, Formolo and Lopez complete the Top 15.
Preidler and Olivier come through next.
Barguil is 18th.
Salinas is 19th.
Sosnitskiy beats Plucinski to 20th.
Today's winner - Edvald Boasson Hagen.
A new name is added to the winner's list of this prestigious race. Boasson Hagen joins the list of the best punchers in the world in having won this race. A great result for Lutsenko to finish 2nd. This should confirm SPAR's safety but we can only be sure once the final standings are out. Ponzi might just be a little disappointed with 3rd place, but it's still a great result. However, it is probably not enough to ensure his team another season in the PT. Spare a thought for T-Mobile and Farfetch, both of whose riders fought valiantly in this race, none more so than Adam Yates, but probably just had too much to do to clinch survival.
At the top, Gazelle do enough to claim the title. Behind them though, it's mayhem! Grieg, in 2nd place before today, can only get 68th as their best result. Puma's best is Arndt in 26th, but they do have three more riders in the Top 50. Aker have Oss to thank massively for getting 12th, because no one else finished in the Top 100 for them! Isostar have Spilak in 6th, Polanc in 25th, four more riders in the Top 50. Generali had a disappointing race. Festina's best are 27th, 29th and 32nd positions, while the rest are outside the Top 100. Air France score big with Hagen winning, and Salinas in 19th. They don't have anyone else in the Top 50 though.
With this, the PT season comes to a close. All that's left now is to wait for the final standings to be released and to see how this result effects the table.
For now, it's goodbye from this reporter for another season. See you in the off-season for the World and National Championships.
