French prodigy Seixas becomes youngest Giro di Lombardia winner / Photo: Marco BERTORELLO - AFP
French prodigy Seixas becomes youngest Giro di Lombardia winner
French prodigy Paul Seixas ended his breakout season as a history-making Monument winner with a stunning victory at the Giro di Lombardia on Saturday.
The 20-year-old became the youngest ever winner of the Classic of the Falling Leaves and the fourth-youngest winner of a Monument.
Vuelta a Espana champion Enric Mas took second place, 48sec back, with Italian Giulio Ciccone rounding out the podium just over a minute behind the winner.
Seixas launched a devastating attack on the Civiglio climb with around 19km of the 239km one-day classic remaining, and within a kilometre, he had dropped all of his remaning challengers.
Olympic and European champion Remco Evenepoel was the first to flounder, followed shortly by pre-race favourite Isaac Del Toro and then world champion Brandon McNulty.
Evenepoel and McNulty eventually came home in fourth and fifth.
With cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar, the winner of the last five editions of Lombardia, missing due to injury, Seixas took his chance to end an incredible season as a Monument winner.
It was only his third ever Monument -- the five most prestigious one-day classics on the calendar -- having finished seventh at Lombardia last year and second at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April.
Pogacar had won both of those.
This success completes a remarkable first full season in the professional ranks for Seixas.
He was fourth at the Tour de France -- his debut Grand Tour -- in July, having won the Tour of the Basque Country and La Fleche Wallonne earlier in the yar.
He had also impressed in second-placed finishes at Strade Bianche, Liege and the Montreal GP.
But he endured a disappointing world championships last month, cramping up in the final stages and finishing 15th, although a week earlier he had won the time-trial bronze medal behind specialists Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna.
L.Delgado--GBA
