No rider since 1944 had won one of cycling’s five Monuments this young. On Saturday, Paul Seixas pulled clear of the favourites on the steep ramps of the Civiglio climb with 19 kilometres to go in the 239-kilometre race from Bergamo to Como, then rode alone to the finish 48 seconds ahead of Spain’s Enric Mas and 1 minute 5 seconds ahead of Italy’s Giulio Ciccone.
Within a kilometre of the acceleration, Tom Pidcock and Ciccone had lost the wheel. Remco Evenepoel could not follow soon after. By the top of the Civiglio, Seixas was alone against the clock on the drop into Como.
“It was crazy. Everything went perfect. The team-mates [did a] great, awesome job. I had amazing legs,” Seixas said at the finish.
Mas, who won the Vuelta a España earlier this season, forced his way back up to Ciccone over the top of San Fermo della Battaglia but ran out of road. Evenepoel came home fourth, with Brandon McNulty, Pidcock and Pello Bilbao filling the places behind him.
A 121-year record falls
The previous mark belonged to Italian Giovanni Gerbi, who was 20 years and 161 days old when he won the first edition of Il Lombardia in 1905. Seixas has taken it away by nearly five months, and he is also the fourth-youngest winner of any Monument in the history of the sport.
Decathlon’s first Monument
The win is the first Monument victory for Decathlon CMA CGM, and it ended a five-edition winning streak at Il Lombardia for Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates. The Slovenian missed the race after crashing at the Vuelta a España two months ago.
An eighth win in a breakout season
Il Lombardia is Seixas’s eighth victory of 2026. He has already taken the Flèche Wallonne and the Tour of the Basque Country this year, finished fourth overall in his Tour de France debut and claimed a bronze medal in the time trial at the world championships.
Seixas described the final 19 kilometres as a race against himself.
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“Then I did the best I could, a TT, me against myself and yeah, it was crazy,” he told reporters in Como.
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