Cycling-Aggressive Pogacar retains Lombardia title

The Tour de France runner-up shook things up in the penultimate ascent before beating Spain's Enric Mas in a two-man sprint while another Spaniard, Mikel Landa, ended up third, 10 seconds behind. It was Pogacar's third victory in one of the "Monument" group of classic races, after he prevailed last year in Como and also in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Tadej Pogacar retained his Giro di Lombardia title on Saturday when his attacking intentions were rewarded on the line after a 253-km (157-mile) ride from Bergamo to Como. The Tour de France runner-up shook things up in the penultimate ascent before beating Spain's Enric Mas in a two-man sprint while another Spaniard, Mikel Landa, ended up third, 10 seconds behind.

It was Pogacar's third victory in one of the "Monument" group of classic races, after he prevailed last year in Como and also in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. "It's really amazing to repeat victory here. It was great team work," the 2021 Tour de France winner said as he paid tribute to his UAE Emirates team mates.

"This season has been almost perfect." Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard suffered in the finale and took a disappointing 16th place.

Pogacar accelerated with 20km left, and Landa and Mas were the only ones to follow in the ascent to the Civiglio. Two kilometres further on, the Slovenian attacked again and Landa was dropped, but the Spaniard made it back in the descent, only to crack on the last climb to San Fermo della Battaglia, when Mas upped the pace.

Pogacar followed easily and he was never troubled in the final sprint. It was the last race for previous Grand Tour winners Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde, both of whom are retiring.

Italian Nibali, one of only seven riders to win all three Grand Tours, finished 24th while Spain's Valverde, a former world champion and Vuelta winner who served a doping ban from 2010-12, took sixth place.

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