Paul Seixas announces arrival with Il Lombardia triumph after riders stage protest over safety
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French prodigy Paul Seixas rode solo to claim the first Monument victory of his career at the Il Lombardia ahead of Spain’s Enric Mas and Italy’s Giulio Ciccone.
The 20-year-old attacked 19km from the finish in Como to claim the title won by Tadej Pogacar for the last five years. The Slovenian missed the race after crashing at the Vuelta a Espana two months ago.
Seixas won his first Monument, one of the five most prestigious one-day races in professional cycling, in his third appearance.
Seixas, who finished fourth in this year’s Tour de France, pulled clear on the Civiglio climb with 19km to go, with Britain’s Tom Pidcock and Ciccone the only riders able to follow his wheel.
The Frenchman dropped both rivals a few hundred metres later and rode alone over the final 18km to become the youngest Monument winner since 1944 and youngest ever winner ever in Lombardy.
Riders had earlier staged a five-minute protest before the start of Saturday’s race to highlight growing safety concerns following a series of incidents involving race vehicles. It came days after riders Thomas Gloag and Marcel Camprubi were struck by a police motorcycle travelling in the opposite direction during Tre Valli Varesine.
The Decathlon–CMA CGM rider is the first Frenchman to win a Monument since Julian Alaphilippe at Milan–San Remo in 2019, and the first to triumph at the Giro di Lombardia since Thibaut Pinot in 2018.
The victory came two weeks after a huge disappointment for Seixas at the World Championships, where he finished 15th after starting among the favourites.
After organisers completed the start countdown, the peloton remained stationary, before Belgium’s double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel stepped forward to explain the riders’ action.
“There’s too many incidents happening with vehicles in the race,” Evenepoel said. “Unfortunately we lost the life of a brother and of a colleague of us, so we want to make this statement to show to the world that we cannot keep accepting the fact that guys are getting injured or literally dying in what we like the most to do.”
Evenepoel was referring to the death of British cyclist Finlay Tarling, younger brother of Ineos rider Josh Tarling, who was killed in a collision with a vehicle during the Tour of Portugal on 14 August. The demonstration delayed the start of the final Monument race of the season by five minutes before the peleton set off.
Reuters
