Eurosport Cycle

Knowing something is going to happen is very different from stopping it. Danny Bochaccia was the out and out favourite for the 118th Lombardier, the final mon Could he? Would he? I live so how? Well, everyone suspected that the final big climb of the day, the Sormano, would be the launch pad for Danny Bochaccia, and the parkour suggested that the world champion would deliver. So it was for everybody else to try and stop him. Slightly altered course today of 255km in total, added to that over 5000m of altitude gain, Destination Como. Starting off in Bergamo, most are climbing in the first half of the race, and indeed the first test would come up reasonably early. Well the year prior it had taken 33km for a substantial breakaway to get away, and that only happened after a crash Remco Avena Paul knew all about crashes at this race, having broken his pelvis in 2022, and some ghosts to put to one side for him as well. It was cagey at the beginning, it's fair to say, took a long while for the brave to go for it. Tobias Baier from Alps in De Kernick stepped up, so did Giorgio Massotto from Corotec, and indeed Connozio from Ines Grinadiers, but they weren't allowed too much leash. Eddie Lombardier sought that. Manu picked up two stage wins in La Vuelta, wanted to be part of the action further down the road, and so it was that 12 riders found themselves up ahead. The lockdown was attempted by UE Team Emirates, could they stop anyone else from bridging over? The answer was no. Suddenly we had two groups hoping to merge, and indeed both groups contained teammates. A bunch of riches for Bahrain Victorious, already having Tiberi and Morich up the road, Damiana Caruso tried to bridge over as well. Finally they formed a fighting force of 23 riders. Would this be too much to stop UE Team Emirates controlling the day? Well when the merge happened, suddenly it looked How much would they need by the time we reached the final big climb of the day? Was anybody's guess, but ass UE Team Emirates looked cool, calm and collected, and in fact Jan Christian and Finnfisher Black did much of the work for Tally Book Hatcher. The world champion just refreshing himself through the day, and the big danger of course for UE Team Emirates doing all of this work was that other teams were getting a free ride, most notably Enric Maas and Movistar, tucked in and happy for the time being. Well with over 160km of racing complete, four and a half minutes was the gap, but it started to the climbs were having a toll, late season of course, and some tired legs and minds were on display, not for UE Team Emirates. Strongest here, and by the time we came to the mighty Solomano, the gap was down to just over a minute. Well with the danger of UE Team Emirates just absorbing everybody, Group Armour decided to get lively. Rene Manard kicking on, Remy Rojas was also very lively within that group, but so were UE Team Emirates and the gap just came down. Alam Yates now picking it up, Sivakov would be the last man standing for Tally Book Hatcher. It was always predicted that he would go for the launch on the Solomano, and everyone knew it. So did Zanero Maurice, he thought I'm not hanging around here, he'd bridge it up to join Axel Lorans from Alfa Cinti Kurnic up front, and now he found himself alone and up the road. All the breakaway disintegrated, this was what was called the Palatine on the day, can you believe it, a very small group indeed, some notables within it, but of course Tally Book Hatcher kicking on, and indeed with just two remaining up front, Arendt Smyrne and Maurice. It was time for Mugatia to launch, well the golden helmet of Remkor Evenapol looked, he looked around to see who else might be tempted to try and close the gap, and the answer was nobody. Tally Book Hatcher went off from such a distance was it sustainable, well we've seen him do it so often before, most notably of course at the World Championships, even the drinks, he said no I don't want to carry that over the top, I'll pick up more drinks a little bit later on. Then in fact Eatvalt then came up to join Evenapol and Enric Mass, and the three of them had a kind of a spiteful relationship, Evenapol was trying to get them to share the duties but all the while up front Tally Book Hatcher kept stamping on the pedals, and indeed as he went up and over the top of the Soromano he knew that a long descent with one little peak remaining would deliver. Once the gap he said, he was told and it was substantial. Evenapol decided that he'd rather be alone if you want a job doing, do it yourself, and he chased into the gap but it constantly expanded. Van Eatveldt was there with Mass and Sivakov, refound his legs and decided that he'd be battling for third place, would it be one and three for UE Team Emirates? Evenapol also asking what the gap was and he didn'the final l He also knew that this would be four Lombardia in a row, something only achieved by Fausto Coppi who has five to his name. Cross the line to stop the clock before lifting up his bike in celebration, Tally Book Hatcher in charge as he has been for much of the season. His 25th win in 57 days of racing. Incredible, it's his era. Everybody knows it including Remko Evenapol, double Olympic champion, world time trial champion as well could not make inroads into Tally Book Hatcher. Evenapol getting emotional in a race that has injured him in the past and there was a coming together on the descents, Giulio Cicconi making it joy for Italy by reaching the podi What a guy, what an era and what a privilege to watch him in action. Tally Book Hatcher in charge. Three misses 16th margin of victory ahead of Cicconi, Isagiri, Mass, Sivakov and Eatvelle in seventh, Paulus, Guddu and Maurice, Remko Evenapol that runner up. This is a magical era and he, Book Hatcher, the magician.