Vincenzo Nibali won Il Lombardia in style on Sunday to claim his first Monument one-day classic victory. The Astana rider, who was thrown out of the Vuelta last month for holding on to a team car, attacked on the penultimate descent and never looked back.
Spain’s Dani Moreno (Katusha) and the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), who jumped away from the group of favourites on the last climb to lead the chase, finished second and third, 21 and 32 seconds back respectively after 245km from Bergamo.
“It was a fantastic day, the whole team worked very well,” said Nibali, who was sheltered by Diego Rosa in the last part of the race, one of the five Monument classics along with Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Nibali’s previous best result in the Monuments was third place on Milan-San Remo and second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2012.
“I tried to attack on the climb but I realised I had to do it differently,” he added.
Nibali attacked on the ascent of the Civiglio but was reined in by Pinot. He attacked again on the downhill and no rider was able to follow the Italian, one of the best descenders in the world. Pinot and Moreno were stronger than the rest of the top riders on the final climb but failed to close the gap, which increased on the last downhill.
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