Vincenzo Nibali has won the Giro di Lombardia. Zdenek Stybar was in the front for a while, but didn’t manage to finish the race.

“This was for pure climbers. A very hard race. But I’m happy I was here, because now I’ve done all the five monuments this year," he told his personal website.

The Giro di Lombardia changed his parcours again this year. The riders had to climb a lot between Bergamo and Como.

“And there was also the rain whucg made it difficult. Luckily not all day, but the roads were wet and sometimes dangerous.

“We talked with the team this morning and decided to ride in the front in a few downhills. And after a downhill we were in front with five of our team plus Tim Wellens, Robert Gesink and Tom-Jelte Slagter. We took 45 seconds.”

But not everyone wanted to work and the peloton was never far behind.

“I felt good, but when our leader Michal Kwiatkowski accelerated on a climb I couldn’t follow. Wellens went with him and the rest was caught again by the peloton. Including me.

“After that the Muro Soramano followed. A very steep climb up to 27%. Damn, that was steep! When we made it to Como I stopped the race. Gianluca Brambilla from our team finished in tenth place. Not bad, because it was really very hard.”

Stybar enjoyed the race.

“I’ve done Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. With this race I’ve done all the big five. On Tuesday I will do my last race of the season with Binche - Chimay – Binche. And after that I need some rest.”

Stybar ended the race in Binche and so failed to defend his title.