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Il Lombardia 2023

Page 29 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Who will win and why?

  • Tadej Pogačar

    Votes: 70 53.8%
  • Remco Evenepoel

    Votes: 20 15.4%
  • Someone else

    Votes: 40 30.8%

  • Total voters
    130
I just saw a post-race interview with Roglic. He seemed pretty happy with third. Said he didn't have the legs and was basically holding on the last 50k.

It seems Primoz misses some glicogene reserves in last hours of those monster one-day races. He seems much better in sub-200 km races. Anyway, there's still hope, as he mantioned - 2nd next year and win in 2025!
 
So I think the gaps in strength were quite small, but Roglic fried himself on Ganda and then needed to recover, and the G2 fried themselves on Bergamo Alta allowing Roglic to come back.

Gaps in pure w/kg on Ganda were small and the level was very high (23:07 by 5 guys, it's faster than Pogacar in 2021).
However, there was a gap in endurance and Pog had more in tank at the end of this long race.
 
Amazing ride from Pogacar, the way he times his form for Lombardia is just something magnificent. And the ride today was just, hats off. One of the greats.

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As soon as he went in the descent I knew he wanted to do a 30 km solo. The way he powered away on the big gear after each bend was impressive. Those cramps can't have been too serious, or he would have tried to hide it.

In the pursuit Rodriguez was the only one who went full. The others soon started meditating about the second place.
It happened not too long after the descent, where he had been slowing down and getting up to speed again after each corner.

Then coming back down and it is time to start working on the flat... I can see why he may felt some cramps. He had been going 100% on most of the descent and maybe got too eager in the beginning on the flat.

However, it looked like they told him from the car to ease up "you have 40 seconds" and just to manage himself. Got something from the car and the second group started their shenanigans, so he could cruise away in the end.
 
Really good race especially in the last 40km.

Pogačar wasn't super strong in the climbs but his descend attack was smart and strong to win in beautiful fashion his third straight Lombardia and continue to write cycling history.

Bagioli getting second is a success for him. I first took him seriously in GP Montreal ladt year when he got third behind Pogačar and Van Aert and today he shows that he is a force to be reckon with in future hilly monuments.

Roglič once again shows thst he has some trouble with distances well above 200km but he fought a lot and although I am not a fan, I am genuinely pleased he finally gets a podium here.

Among other riders, Vlasov looked very good on the climbs but then cracked a bit, Rodriguez once again shows that he is not only a great GT prospect but also has talent for the hilly classics, Carapaz showed a lot of tenacity and as for Remco, he cracked in Passo di Ganda, as I expected, just like in 2021 but this time he was stronger (despite the crash) and managed to get into the top10 with given the circumstances is not a bad result.
 
238kms, 4600 vertical meters, 40.1kms/hr average speed.

That is really fast. Faster even than in 2021 (0.5kms/hr faster).

In a few years, they‘ll ride this in >41kms/hr, average.

It gets faster all the time. Gladly also bike handling skills improve.

When I see these 180 riders pelotons in the one day classics, in the opening hours, I always hope everything goes well. The scenery, the roads of these prestigious, great classics actually aren’t made for 180 guys hammering through the villages and curves there. It‘s actually quite unsafe.

The good thing is, riders are strong and skilled, and the bikes are marvels.

I‘m glad for Pinot he enjoyed it, one last time. I never liked him this much, because he too often did not let the legs do the talking, but he even won this race once, so he can be proud.