Tadej Pogacar again confirmed his impressive return to form by soloing to victory in Giro di Lombardia 2023. Pogacar successfully escaped from the other favorites by launching a powerful attack with thirty kilometers left of the race. He finished the 238-kilometer race in 05:55:33.

Slovenian Pogacar even suffered from cramps with twelve kilometers left of the race, but this did not cause the always smiling and optimistic rider to abandon his ambitions in today’s race. Pogacar pressed on, conquered the final climb of the day, and was first across the finish line in Bergamo despite strong efforts from the chasers.

"It’s been a great day overall. The final climb was super hard for me and there were a lot of things going on,” a proud race winner told Roadcycling.com after being celebrated on the podium.

“It was a really tough finish and I’m super happy to come solo to the finish line today. It gave me a lot of emotions, especially while being alone on the road. To win this kind of race, you need a great body, an excellent condition, a good mental strength and a bit of luck too,” Pogacar explained.

“To get the third consecutive victory is unbelievable. It’s a dream race for any rider, being the last one of the season. It’s a beautiful race. When I cramped, I was hoping for the group behind to not cooperate so well, but I managed to go over the climb. I think it was the hardest of my three victories at Il Lombardia. It’s been a strange season for me with an injury, but overall a really great season, especially after today’s win and we also top the teams ranking for this year and that was a big goal for us from the beginning.”

Andrea Bagioli (Team Soudal-QuickStep) won the sprint from a six-man chase group to take second place, 52 seconds after the race winner. Jumbo-Visma’s Primoz Roglic completed the race podium. Roglic will be riding for Team Bora-Hansgrohe from the 2024 season.

Brothers Simon and Adam Yates finished fifth and sixth and EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz continued his impressive form by finishing eighth following a lengthy spell off the bike after his serious crash in stage 1 of this year’s Tour de France. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) finished ninth, 01:06 minutes after the winner.

Pogacar is the third rider to have won three consecutive editions of Il Lombardia in the proud history of the famous Classic. He joins Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi.