Evenepoel finishes second behind Pogacar in final big race of the season
Remco Evenepoel has finished second in the Tour of Lombardy, the final big race of the cycling season and his last with the Soudal Quick-Step team.
The 241km race was comfortably won by Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who finished 1:48 ahead of Evenepoel and more than 3 minutes ahead of Australian Michael Storer in third place.
Equalling the record of five victories set by Fausto Coppi, Pogacar becomes the first rider to win a monument – cycling’s most prestigious one-day events – five times in a row. He is also the first to finish on the podium at all five monuments in one season.
"The fact that this is my last race for the team is an extra motivation to go all out one more time"
Evenepoel now moves to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. In the run-up to Lombardy, he said he wanted to give his team a farewell gift.
“The fact that this is my last race for the team is an extra motivation to go all out one more time. I don’t feel sad, but I do feel extra motivated,” he said before the race.
The Tour of Lombardy reverses its start and finish every year. This year, it covered 241km and six long climbs from Como to Bergamo.
Last year, Pogacar finished 3:15 ahead of Evenepoel, the largest winning margin in the event since legendary Belgian Eddy Merckx’s victory in 1971, when he finished 3:31 ahead of Italian Franco Bitossi. The last Belgian to win the race was Philippe Gilbert in 2009 and 2010.
The monuments are the oldest, hardest and most prestigious one-day races: Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Lombardy.
Tadej Pogacar ahead of Remco Evenepoel in the Tour of Lombardy, 11 October 2025 © PHOTO MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP
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