Until then, Giovanni Gerbi, who had won the inaugural Il Lombardia in 1905, had held this record. Seixas has now beaten it by about half a year. The decisive moment came when the Frenchman upped the pace on the penultimate climb of the day to Civiglio; after just a few metres, none of his rivals could keep up. Seixas extended his lead all the way to the summit and then defended his advantage right to the finish. Vuelta winner Mas crossed the line 48 seconds behind, whilst European Championship runner-up Ciccone finished 1 minute and 5 seconds behind.

Ciccone’s conqueror at the European Championships, top favourite Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe), went on to win the sprint from a nine-man group ahead of world champion Branden McNulty (UAE Team Emirates – XRG). It was also Evenepoel who, before the start of the 239-kilometre race – which, following the pattern of recent years, once again ran from Bergamo to Como this year, and thus in the opposite direction to last year – led a protest by the peloton and acted as its spokesperson. After the starting signal for the neutralised opening section of the race had been given, the peloton did not set off but waited for five minutes before the European Champion explained that this was an action intended to draw attention once again to the many accidents attributable to a lack of safety along the route, including, amongst other things, the death of Finlay Tarling, who died after his car collided head-on with a delivery van on a stretch of road that was actually closed to traffic during the Tour of Portugal.

Seixas “as if in a dream”

After that, however, the race unfolded in such a way that Seixas’ Decathlon team – which, like the professional himself, was winning its first Monument – initially adopted a rather defensive approach compared with other races this season. Unlike Red Bull. During the crucial phase, Evenepoel mainly had Giulio Pellizzari doing the work, but he too had to drop back shortly after his key helper when Seixas increased the pace.

“It feels like a dream,” said Seixas, the first French winner since Thibaut Pinot in 2018. “My legs felt incredible and I managed to attack at exactly the moment I’d planned – perhaps a little earlier. But then it was like a time trial. It was me against myself. I’d already built up a good lead at the top of Civiglio, but that wasn’t enough to think about victory just yet. It wasn’t until the end of the final climb that I could start thinking about it.”

Il Lombardia 2026 – Results

How the 2026 Tour of Lombardy unfolded

Following the protest at the start, the race got off to a rather nervous start on wet roads, where thick fog had also set in at times. Over the first 20 kilometres, which were fairly flat, the first breakaway riders pulled away, but they were caught again on the climb to Selvino. It was there that the day’s leading group formed.

The 14 riders included big names such as Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain - Victorious) and Victor Campenaerts (Team Visma | Lease a Bike). By the middle of the race, they had a lead of more than three minutes.

70 kilometres from the finish, the decisive phase of the race began with the climb to Madonna del Ghisallo – and just in time, the weather had improved significantly. The breakaway riders still held a two-minute lead, whilst in the peloton it was primarily UAE Emirates – XRG who set the pace. That changed on the climb, however. Red Bull took command and broke the peloton apart.

US trio give it a go

However, it was Visma | Lease a Bike who launched the attack through Matteo Jorgenson. The American was joined by his two compatriots, Quinn Simmons (Lidl - Trek) and Brandon McNulty. Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team) also managed to latch on at the back, but the gap didn’t grow significantly over the crest.

With 45 kilometres to go, the group had been caught again. The remaining leading septet, led by O’Connor, still had a 40-second lead. However, this doubled again shortly afterwards, once the chasers had been caught and the pace amongst the favourites had settled down once more. On the first climb to San Fermo della Battaglia, 30 kilometres from the finish, Red Bull then picked up the pace once more, before catching the breakaway riders on the penultimate climb to Civiglio.

Seixas storms to the top

But then Remco Evenepoel ran into trouble. Seixas launched an attack; Pidcock and Ciccone went with him, but shortly afterwards the Frenchman also left his two companions behind. At the top of the climb, Seixas had a 30-second lead over Ciccone and Enric Mas (Movistar Team), and a 15-second lead over the second chasing duo of Pidcock and Filippo Zana (Soudal Quick-Step). Evenepoel was more than a minute behind, whilst Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) was even further back.

When the route climbed once more towards San Fermo della Battaglia, seven kilometres from the finish, Seixas carried on at his own pace. At the same time, Mas left Ciccone behind. This set the stage for the same line-up to cross the finish line in Como. Behind them, Evenepoel won the sprint from the first major group.