Tour of Lombardy 2018: Thibaut Pinot wins first Monument in his career

The Tour of Lombardy amounts to 241 kilometres and takes in almost 4,000 climbing metres. Thibaut Pinot solos to victory and wins the race ahead of Vincenzo Nibali. The two opened up the race on the Wall of Sormano with Primoz Roglic, while Egan Bernal tracked them down in the descent. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 2018 Tour of Lombardy

1. Thibaut Pinot (fra)
2. Vincenzo Nibali (ita) + 0.32
3. Dylan Teuns (bel) + 0.43
4. Rigoberto Uran (col) s.t.
5. Tim Wellens (bel) s.t.
6. Ion Izagirre (spa) s.t.
7. Rafal Majka (pol) s.t.
8. Domenico Pozzovivo (ita) s.t.
9. Daniel Martin (irl) + 0.48
10. George Bennett (nzl) + 1.22

Race report
Following a fast paced opening Davide Ballerini, Umberto Orsini, Alessandro Tonelli, Florian Sénéchal, Franck Bonnamour, Jonathan Restrepo, Michael Storer and Marco Marcato jump clear to race to a lead of 6 minutes.

On the Madonna del Ghisallo the front group is down to Bonnamour, Tonelli, Orsini and Storer, while Jack Haig tries to track the four down. He doesn’t succeed though and on the climb to Sormano the peloton gobbles him up before they catch the front group.

At the Wall of Sormano Primoz Roglic goes on the attack. Romain Bardet is the most prominent rider struggling and he loses contact.

Just before the summit Vincenzo Nibali and Thibaut Pinot bring back Roglic to leave him behind. In the descent Roglic rejoins them, while Egan Bernal also bridges across. Back at the shores of Lake Como a group with Alejandro Valverde, Michael Woods, Daniel Martin, Enric Mas, Dylan Teuns, Rigoberto Uran, Rafal Majka, Adam Yates and Tim Wellens is chasing at 40 seconds.

On the flat section to the Civiglio – 4.2 kilometres at 9.7% – the gap remains stable. Nibali and Pinot open up a gap on the first slopes. Roglic is dropped straight away, Bernal regains contact at first before he is distanced. Valverde can’t follow the pace in the chasing group.

Just before the summit Pinot goes solo, while Dan Martin leaves the other chasers behind. Rafal Majka and Wellens rejoin him in the descent. Yet, it doesn’t lead to anything as they are caught again.

When he tackles the last climb, Monte Olimpino, Pinot leads Nibali by 32 seconds. The defending champion falls back into the chasing group before he launches another attack. While Pinot solos to victory the Sicilian powers to second place. Dylan Teuns wins the group sprint to round out the podium.