Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) finally got the big one-day win that he has been searching for for years when he completed an impressive solo effort in the Il Lombardia in successful fashion. After repeated attacks on the Civiglio climb, he finally made the difference on the descent and held off a late comeback from Daniel Moreno (Katusha) while Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) soloed in to take third.

 

Vincenzo Nibali is one of the select few riders to have won all grand tours but he has been desperately searching for a big win in the one-day races. He got very close at the 2012 Liege-Bastogne-Liege when he was passed by Maxim Iglinskiy just a few kilometres from the finish and his long-distance attack in the 2012 Il Lombardia didn’t pay off either.

 

Surprisingly, he finally accomplished the mission at the end of what has been a disastrous 2015 season when he won the brutally hard 2015 edition of Il Lombardia, the final monument of the season. Despite being the pre-race favourite, he managed to drop all his rivals on the descent of the Civiglio climb and held off all his chasers to take a solo win, confirming the excellent condition he has shown since he was expelled from the Vuelta. The win was his third in an Italian one-day race as he also won Coppa Bernocchi and Tre Valli Varesine in September.

 

His Astana had really played with the muscles on the brutally steep Muro di Sormano climb and it was a small group that reached the bottom of the Civiglio climb 22km from the finish. Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Garmin), Romain Bardet, Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r), Nibali, Mikel Landa, Diego Rosa (Astana), Enrico Barbin (Bardiani), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Argon 18), Gianluca Brambilla, Carlos Verona (Etixx-QuickStep), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Simon Yates, Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE), Matteo Busato (Southeast), Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin), Daniel Moreno (Katusha), Robert Gesink, George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo), Sergio Henao, Mikel Nieve, and Wout Poels (Sky) had made the selection and were chasing behind Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) and Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal).

 

It was Landa doing the work in the flat section leading to the climb and he had brought the gap down to 10 seconds when they hit the 5km ascent. Busato, Bennett, Slagter, Verona, Benedetti, Vuillermoz and Gesink were also distanced as Landa swung off and left it to Rosa to set the pace.

 

The in-form Italian quickly brought Wellens back after the Belgian had been dropped by Kwiatkowki and he also sent Barguil and Tares out the back. Bardet and Gallopin were the next to lose contact and when they passed Kiwatkowski 19km from the finish, only Rosa, Nibali, Chaves, Valverde, Moreno, Henao, Pinot, Poels, Nieve and Brambilla had survived.

 

This was when Nibali made his first move but he was unable to shake Chaves who stayed glued to his wheel. Moreno, Valverde and Pinot made it back and finally Henao, Rosa, Nieve and Brambilla also got back in contention.

 

Rosa made an immediate counterattack and was joined by Henao and Brambilla before Rosa brought it back together and started to ride on the front. That’s when Nibali tried again but Chaves was simply impossible to drop. However, Henao and Brambilla fell off the pace as Moreno, Valverde, Pinot, Rosa and Nieve made it back.

 

Pinot was the next to try and was joined by Nieve and Rosa while Brambilla just made it back in time to get dropped when Moreno accelerated to bring the front trio back. Nieve tried again and again Rosa and Pinoy joined him.

 

Rosa went hard and sent the Basque out the back door but again Moreno shut the move down. Nibali made an immediate attack and this time it was Pinot marking him closely.

 

Moreno, Valverde, Chaves and Rosa made it back and just before they crested the summit, Nieve also got back. Rosa went straight to the front to set the pace.

 

Just as everybody expected the final climb of San Fermo della Battaglia to be the decider, Nibali made a strong attack on the descent and he got an immediate gap while Moreno and Valverde were watching each other. He had a big advantage when Valverde and Chaves finally started to chase but when Rosa took over, it was clear that the pace was not fast enough.

 

Nibali hit the flat road with 10km to with a 25-second advantage and as the chase was not organized, Brambilla and later also Henao and Gallopin made it back. Moments later, Nibali hit the final climb with a 41-second advantage.

 

Chaves went hard right from the bottom but was closely marked by Rosa. He had to stop his effort du to cramps and so was distanced when Nieve went hard.

 

Pinoy countered that move and got into lone pursuit of Nibali before Moreno put in a big effort. Only Valverde and Rosa could match him as he made it back to Pinot and those two riders both cracked, dropping back to Nieve.

 

Pinot managed to stay with Moreno for a little while but he cracked one kilometre from the top. Meanwhile, Gallopin had caught Rosa, Valverde and Nieve, with the Basque setting the pace.

 

Moreno was riding extremely fast and as he approached the summit, the gap was suddenly on 15 seconds. However, his progress stalled and when he reached the top, it was still 14 seconds, with Pinot following 10 seconds later. Valverde had made a big surge further back to drop Gallopin but Rosa and Nieve were still there.

 

Moreno managed to reduce the gap to 11 seconds with 2km to go where Pinot was at 22 seconds and the Valverde group at 33 seconds. However, that was as close as he would get and Nibali had plenty of time to savour the moment when he hit the finishing straight. Moreno and Pinot rounded out the top 3 while Valverde narrowly managed to pass Rosa to take fourth ahead of the Italian, Nieve and Gallopin who reached the finish alone.

 

With Il Lombardia done and dusted, the 2015 WorldTour has come to an end, with Valverde, Movistar and Spain winning the respective competitions. However, there is still plenty of racing left in Italy as Thursday’s Coppa Sabatini, Saturday’s Giro dell Emilia and Sunday’s GP Beghelli will end the season.

 

A brutal course

The 109th edition of Il Lombardia was held on a brutally hard 245km course that brought the riders from Bergamo to Como. After a relatively flat first half with just the two climbs of Colle Gallo and Colle Brianza, the hostilities started after 170km of racing when the riders hit the famous Madonna del Ghisallo climb followed by the brutally steep Colma and Muro di Sormano. After a difficult descent and a flat section, the riders tackled the shorter, steep climbs of Civiglio and San Fermo della Battaglia before they descended the final 5.3km to the finishes.

 

As had been forecasted, it was pouring rain in the morning but the sun was shining by the time the riders rolled out for their neutral ride. Two riders didn’t sign in, Seghei Tvetcov (Androni) and Andrea Fedi (Southeast).

 

Schumacher and Polanc take off

Right from the start, Manuel Belletti (Southeast) and Giacomo Berlato (Nippo) launched a first attack but they were quickly brought back and it was all together at the 8km mark. The attacking continued and after 13km of racing, Stefan Schumacher (CCC) and Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida) laid the foundations for the early break.

 

While the peloton slowed down, they managed to build an advantage of 20 seconds but the attacking started again and they had to work hard to maintain, their tiny advantage. Enrico Barbin (Bardiani), Pierpaoolo De Negri (Nippo), Dennis van Winden (LottoNL-Jumbo), Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin), Jerome Coppel (IAM), Marco Canola (Unitedhealthcare) and Matteo Busato (Southeast) managed to bridge the gap to make it a 9-rider group.

 

11 riders get clear

Bora-Argon 18 had missed the break so they were chasing hard until they managed to send Cesare Benedetti across alongside Oscar Gatto (Androni). The gap was only 20 seconds, with Sky leading the chase, but when they surrendered, the gap went out to 1.10 at the 31km mark.

 

The gap grew quickly and was already 5.42 after 39km of racing. Hence, it was relatively easy for Coppel to rejoin the break after a puncture.

 

Astana take control

After a first hour with an average speed of 46.2km/h, the escapees entered the final 200km with an advantage of 7.50. Here they started to climb the Colle Gallo and after the gap had reached a maximum of 8.06, it started to come down on the steep slopes.

 

While rain started to fall, Astana were doing some damage and they had brought the gap down to 7.00 after 58km of racing. As they finished the climb, the Kazakh team kept the gap stable between 7.00 and 7.30 under the pouring rain.

 

Astana lead the chase

After 107km of racing, the gap had gone out to 8 minutes and it was now time to climb the Colle Brianza. The peloton took it relatively easy on that ascent and the gap was 8.30 with 130km to go.

 

After the climb, Astana again accelerated and they had brought the gap down to 7.18 at the 140km mark. They didn’t slow down when a crash split the field, bringing the gap down to 6.55 as they entered the final 100km.

 

Movistar take over

The gap came down to 6.30 before Movistar took over the pace-setting. They had brought the gap down to 5.30 at the 153km mark.

 

At the start of the Madonna del Ghisallo climb, it was only 3.50 and as the fight for position started, riders from Nippo and Unitedhealthcare hit the deck. Meanwhile, the attacking started in the front group.

 

A very strong group gets clear

The attacking also started in the main group as Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale), Michal Kwiatkowski, Matteo Trentin, Carlos Verona, Zdenek Stybar, Lukasz Wisniowski (Etixx-QuickStep), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Ion Izagirre (Movistar), Robert Gesink, Timo Roosen (LottoNL) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) took off.

 

Gatto and Coppel were the first to get dropped from the break while Trentin, Roosen, Wisniowski, Stybar and Nizzolo were distanced from the chase group which picked up Coppel. Meanwhile, Canola and Benedetti managed to drop their companions and distance them by 25 seconds.

 

Canola and Benedetti take the lead

The break split further up as Barbin, Busato and van Winden were now the nearest chasers, with Schumacher, Polanc, De Negri and Gechke following further back. The gaps were 32 and 49 seconds respectively while the peloton was at 3.20.

 

Gatto, Stybar, Nizzolo, Wisniowski, Roosen and Trentin were all caught as they continued their way up towards Ghisallo. At the top, the three chasers were at 18 seconds while the Kwiatkowski group had picked up the rest of the early break one minute behind the leaders. The peloton was led by Dario Cataldo, 3.06 behind.

 

The chase group explodes

On the descent, the three chasers got closer and they made the junction on the lower slopes of the Colma di Sormano. Meanwhile, Trek started to work with Astana in the peloton.

 

Alessandro Vanotti (Astana) was left to do all the work as they hit Colma di Sormano with 55km to go. The chase group was quickly whittled down and it was only Verona, Kwiatkowski, Slagter, Wellens, Izagirre, Gesink, Polanc and Geschke that had survived when thy hit the Muro. At this point, Cataldo had taken over the pace-setting in the peloton.

 

The front group splits up

Benedetti was clearly the strongest in the front group and he quickly dropped Barbin, van Winden and Busato. Canola stayed with him for a long time but had to surrender as they reached the steepest section near the top.

 

Diego Rosa was doing a lot of damage in the main group which was quickly whittled down to around 10 riders. Meanwhile , Gesink, Wellens, Kwiatkowski and Slagter had dropped their companions and passed Barbin, Busato and van Winden as they had nearly caught the leaders too.

 

Rosa does some damage

Kwaitkowski and Wellens were the strongest and caught Benedetti less than one kilometre from the top. The Pole even managed to distance the Belgian before he got to the summit.

 

Rosa had whittled the main group down to just himself, Nibali, Chaves, Moreno, Pinot, Landa and Valverde while everybody else had been dropped and they caught Benedetti, Slagter and Gesink as they crested the summit. Here Wellens had made it back to Kwiatkowski but they only had a minimal advantage.

 

Riders rejoin the peloton

With Kwiatkowski as the driving force, the front duo managed to increase their lead over the peloton which was led by Landa. Meanwhile, Barguil, Poels and Nieve made it back to the main group and later Brambilla, Verona, Henao, Busato, Canola, Bennett, Simon Yates, Gallopin, André Cardoso, Romain Bardet, Alexis Vuillermoz, Barbin also made it back.

 

Further back, a group with the likes of Philippe Gilbert, Yury Trofimov, Damiano Cunego, Leopold König, Domenico Pozzovivo, Jan Bakelants, Giovanni Visconti, Jose Joaquin Rojas, Vasil Kiryienka Darwin Atapuma, Maxime Bouet and Rafal Majka had formed. They were chasing desperately 1.06 behind the leader with 30km to go. At this point, the main group was at 37 seconds.

 

Landa was slowly reducing the gap while the chase group was whittled down to Gilbert, Costa, Rojas, Visconti, Bakelants, Pozzovivo, Bouet and Canola who had dropped back from the main group. As they started the penultimate climb, the gap was only 10 seconds and from here the final action started.