Sublime Seixas Becomes Youngest-Ever Winner of IL Lombardia with Huge Solo Move

Paul Seixas further underlined his staggering talent with an assured win at Il Lombardia, taking the first Monument win of his career and becoming the youngest-ever winner.

The 20 year old drove forward with 19.2km to go to drop most of the other big contenders on the Civiglio, the penultimate climb of the day. He went over the top well clear of European championships runner-up Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling), with the latter being replaced by Vuelta winner Enric Mas (Movistar)

Seixas powered up the second and final ascent of the San Fermo Della Battaglia, with Mas dropping Ciccone in a bid to close up to him.

However he was far too strong, racing in well clear and savoring the biggest win of his career.

Mas raced in for second place, 48 seconds back, with Ciccone taking third in his final race for his team.

Seixas looked stunned by what he had done, and said that things hadn’t really sunk in by the time he did the post-race interview.

“It is crazy. I think I don’t realize [it] for now,” he said. “Everything went perfect, the team did a great, awesome job. Everyone pushed more than what they had to do.”

His Decathlon CMA CGM team did indeed dedicate themselves to him, helping him to save energy until it most counted.

“I had amazing legs. I had the feeling that today was a great day,” he continued. “I managed to make the difference at the moment I choose. Maybe a bit earlier because I felt like the rhythm was not high enough at the start of the climb, for me at least, to make the difference.

“So I had to accelerate early, maybe a bit too early. There were some not really steep parts, so I had to manage really well my effort and accelerate in the hard parts. I did the best TT I could, me against myself. It was crazy.”

No long-awaited Lombardia success for Evenepoel

New European champion Remco Evenepoel had to be satisfied with fourth place, something well below his pre-race ambitions. He crashed in Il Lombardia in his 2020 debut, going over the side of a bridge and falling several meters to the ground.

He fractured his pelvis and has tried to win the race several time since. He was second to Tadej Pogačar in 2024 and 2025 and with Pogačar absent due to injury, he felt he might have his big victory this time around.

That optimism was furthered by his victory in the Euros last weekend but, once the pressure was applied, he found himself slipping backwards and losing contact with the other big challengers.

Just as was the case at the worlds, he dangled off the back of the groups his rival were in, but eventually fought his way forward again towards the end. He led the sprint in for fourth place, 1:20 back, with new world champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates-XRG) continuing his stomping end of season with fifth place.

“I think I had bad position going into the penultimate climb,” he said. “I made a bit of an effort to come to the front and went a little deep on the wheel of Paul and paid for it.

“I felt really good today. But then that climb, I went into the red. That was it.”

Early break puts the pressure on UAE and others

The final Monument of the season was, as ever, a very tough one. It packed in 4662 vertical meters over 239km, and was enlivened by a big breakaway sparked off 211 kilometers out by Uno-X Mobility rider Johannes Kulse.

Andrea Mifsud (Team Polti VisitMalta), Micahel Leonard, Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) and Maxime Decomble (Groupama-FDJ United) got across, while Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), Fausto Masnada (MBH Bank Csb Telecom Fort), George Bennett, Pau Martí (NSN), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL) and Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step) did likewise soon afterwards.

Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) and Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) made it 14 and together they build a lead of almost three minutes.

O’Connor hacked down the break’s size when he set a furious pace on the Ghisallo. Their lead was 1:29 with 61.5km remaining, with the pace heating up behind when Louis Barre (Visma-Lease a Bike) went all out to platform a huge move by Matteo Jorgenson.

The American was joined by compatriots Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates-XRG), as well as the Italian Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana).

However Giulio Pellizzari put in a huge effort and brought them back several kilometers later, then continued to plough along at the front for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Simmons had been the fastest up the Ghisallo but had the misfortune to experience a mechanical, ruining his chances.

Pellizzari continued to set a determined pace on the climb of San Fermo Della Battaglia and put Jorgenson, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) out the back. His efforts ensured the break had just 44 seconds crossing the finish line with 21.8km to go, and while Leonard pushed clear alone soon afterwards on the climb of Civiglio, he was reeled in soon afterwards.

No stopping Seixas

Isaac Del Toro was the big hope for UAE and Adam Yates did most of the work on that climb. However it was Seixas who was strongest. He stomped away with 19.2km remaining, Pidcock and Ciccone clinging on briefly before being forced to slow.

Pidcock’s place in the chase was taken by soon afterwards by Mas, with the Vuelta winner dropping Ciccone on the San Fermo Della Battaglia but having zero success in trying to get back up to Seixas.

The Frenchman was absolutely flying. He may have been the youngest rider in the whole race but he was far above the level of the rest.

“It is a dream. Today my legs made me dream today and then I had an opportunity,” he smiled.

“I really trained hard for this. It is incredible.”

It is, and it set things up for some fascinating clashes with Pogačar next season.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Procycling) was sixth, with nine riders in total in this group.