IL LOMBARDIA’18: Falling Leaves Photo Gallery!

Il Lombardia Photo Gallery: The ‘Race of the Falling Leaves’ brought the curtains down on the 2018 season in fine style with Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) giving France a well needed Monument win. The finalé was deserved of the ‘Classic’ label with attacks aplenty on the steep climbs around Como. We’ve put together the best images from Il Lombardia 2018 photo gallery by Cor Vos and his team.

You can see the PEZ Il Lombardia Race Report HERE and rider quotes and race video in EUROTRASH Monday HERE.

1973 and 2018 World champions at the start – Felice Gimondi and Alejandro Valverde. Valverde has a big palmarès, but Gimondi won nearly everything and also had to battle against Eddy Merckx

Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) took the race of his dreams in Como on Saturday, dropping Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) for the solo win. Belgium’s Dylan Teuns (BMC) brought in the chasers in 3rd place.

LottoNl-Jumbo’s Primož Roglic started the action on the climb of the Muro di Sormano and was joined by Pinot, Nibali and Egan Bernal (Sky). Roglič and Bernal cracked on the final climb of Civiglio and Pinot attacked Nibali to finish solo in Como.

Egal Bernal managed to go with Pinot and Nibali, but faded to 12th place

End of term for Bettiol and Woods

Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde

The Movistar team presented to the fans at the start in Bergamo

Valverde and the peloton wait for the start

The break of the day next to Lake Como

Florian Sénéchal in the break for Quick-Step Floors

The peloton held the leaders at 6 minutes

Into the mountains and the race was on

Bob Jungels was maybe looking forward to his holidays

The race headed towards the Madonna del Ghisello

Climbing above Lake Como

Fabio Aru passing the Madonna del Ghisello

An extra bottle for the World champion

8th place for Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida)

The fans were out for Il Lombardia on Saturday

Valverde was in the action, but the final was too much for the World champ – 11th in Como

The race was over for many before Sormano – Storer and Marcato lead the peloton

Primož Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo) set the race on fire

Pinot and Nibali were soon on his move

Roglic struggled to hold the wheels of Pinot/Roglic tandem

The chasers could only watch the action up ahead

Nibali, Roglic, Pinot and Bernal got together on the descent of the Sormano

On the final climb, the Civiglio, Roglič and Bernal cracked

Could Pinot see in the eyes of Nibali the win was his?

Pinot made his move and the ‘Shark of Messina’ was in trouble

Thibaut Pinot soon had a gap on the Italian

The big win for Pinot and France

Pinot: “Clearly, this is the most beautiful win of my career. Had I been able to choose one race to win, it would have been this one”

Nibali: “Among the Monuments, Il Lombardia it’s my favorite race. After the crash at the Tour, today’s second place represents my sporting redemption”

3rd place for Dylan Teuns (BMC): “I had really good legs today and in the end, I couldn’t gamble for the win because Pinot was really strong on the Sormano and we never saw him again”

11th for World champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and 12th Egan Bernal (Sky), 1:31 down on Pinot

The 2018 Il Lombardia trophy for Groupama-FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot

The final kilometer

Il Lombardia 2018 Result:
1. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ in 5:53:22
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida at 0:32
3. Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC at 0:43
4. Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
5. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal
6. Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
7. Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
8. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
9. Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates at 0:48
10. George Bennett (NZ) LottoNl-Jumbo at 1:22
11. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 1:31
12. Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Sky
13. Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First-Drapac P/B Cannondale
14. Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
15. Mikel Nieve Iturralde (Spa) Mitchelton-Scott
16. Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana at 1:57
17. Primož Roglic (Slo) LottoNl-Jumbo at 3:04
18. Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe at 3:33
19. Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec
20. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana
21. Sergei Chernetski (Rus) Astana
22. Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
23. Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
24. Pieter Serry (Bel) Quick-Step Floors at 3:54
25. Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal.