Cycling: The big favorite prevailed in the end - Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) won this year's Tour of Lombardy after great final kilometers. After the 245km from Bergamo to Como, the Italian triumphed as a soloist ahead of Daniel Moreno (Katusha) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ).
Huge performance from Vincenzo Nibali at the Giro Lombardia: the Astana pro played on his strong technical skills in the finish during, plunging into the downhill 17km from the finish line and tearing a big gap. Although Daniel Moreno (Katusha) came after him again on the following climb, the Astana rider's lead was enough to celebrate his first victory at this monument at the finish in Como.
Almost traditionally, this year's Tour of Lombardy was extremely entertaining over almost the entire distance. Many leadership changes, great panoramas and, last but not least, great driving performances made this Sunday a real cycling festival. After a rather quiet start, the attacks at the front finally began, but none of them was able to break away from the field in a decisive manner in the first few kilometers. It took almost 40km for the race situation to sort itself out: a fairly large group of eleven riders finally managed to distance the field.
In addition to the two Germans Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin) and Stefan Schumacher (CCC), Cesare Benedetti from the ProContinental Team Bora-Argon 18 and Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida) also drove in the large escape group. The lead grew quickly, then leveled off at around seven minutes - for the moment the drivers seemed to be able to live with this constellation.
The climb up to the Madonna del Ghisallo, a little more than 60km before the finish in Como, then enlivened the race enormously and it became confusing. The eleven-man lead group disintegrated during the up to 14% steep 8,5K while several groups broke away from the field and began chasing the leaders. After the difficult descent, on roads that were still wet from the morning rain showers, things calmed down again. A quintet had now come together at the front: Marco Canola (United Healthcare), Denis van Winden (LottoNL-Jumbo), Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CSF), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Argon 18) and Matteo Busato (Southeast) were the new names leader.
Less than two minutes behind the leaders, however, was the first chasing group, which was quite strong with Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep), Tim Wellens and Simon Geschke. So it wasn't too surprising that this group was able to take the lead on the short but extremely steep Muro di Sormano that followed soon after. After the descent, Michal Kwiatkowski and Tim Wellens finally led the race – Simon Geschke had been passed to the field.
At the Muro di Sormano, the Astana team, led by eventual winner Vincenzo Nibali, also took the initiative. Together with Mikel Landa and Diego Rosa, he led the first chasing group, which put enormous pressure on the duo at the front, who bravely defended their lead for a long time. However, 30 km before the finish, Wellens had to give up and left the very strong Michal Kwiatkowski alone at the top – meanwhile less than 20 seconds behind the pursuers around Nibali came. The subsequent climb up to Civiglio was the last nail in the coffin for Kwiatkowski's escape and the Pole was caught by the pursuers.
As a result, seven drivers came together at the top - almost all the favorites for victory have gathered in the new group: Thibaut Pinot, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali, Diego Rosa, Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge), Daniel Moreno (Katusha) and Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) would probably fight for victory. Nibali kept pushing. Of course, the 30-year-old Sardinian had a clear advantage over his competitors because he could still count on the support of an assistant with Rosa.
However, after Nibali failed to make a decisive attack on the climb, the Italian champion put everything on one card on the descent. Inimitable, he threw himself down the narrow, sometimes damp streets and took a great risk - but he was rewarded: A gap to his competitors quickly opened up, also because Rosa managed to delay the pace again and again. The Shark from Messina won more than 30 seconds - it smelled like a home win!
Daniel Moreno managed to gain a few seconds on the Astana driver on the last climb a few kilometers before the finish, but in the end it wasn't enough - Nibali won the 2015 Tour of Lombardy with a strong individual and team performance ahead of Moreno and Thibaut pinot.
[easy table th=“0″]1.,Vincenzo Nibali,Astana,06:16:28
2., Daniel Moreno, Katusha, 00:00:21
3., Thibaut Pinot, FDJ, 00:00:32
4th, Alejandro Valverde, Movistar, 00:00:46
5.,Diego Rosa,Astana,
6.,Mikel Nieve,Sky,
7.,Tony Gallopin,Lotto-Soudal,00:00:56
8.,Sergio Henao,Sky,
9.,Gianluca Brambilla,Etixx-QuickStep,00:01:10
[/easy table]
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