ANALYSIS | Tadej Pogacar's 3 rivals for 2025 Il Lombardia

It seems very complicated that this coming Saturday Tadej Pogacar will not win his fifth consecutive Il Lombardia. The Italian Monument, as long as it doesn't change its route as it used to do and becomes a little less hard, will continue to be perfect for the World Champion on the other hand, arrives in an extraordinary form to be the end of a very long season.

Since winning the UAE Tour and Strade Bianche in early March, after an almost perfect spring (winner in Flanders, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège; and second in Amstel Gold Race and Roubaix; third at Milano-Sanremo) and after beating Jonas Vingegaard at the Criterium du Dauphiné and Tour de France, he has reached the end of the season reaching his best form once again, winning the World and European Championships with comfort - whilst now winning Tre Valli Varesine ahead of the final monument of the season.

He seems unbeatable, although in cycling nothing is written in advance, so we try to think of possible riders who can beat him this Sunday in the fight for his fifth consecutive Giro di Lombardia and his tenth Monument in total. We propose: Isaac del Toro, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe. Here's why these riders and not others are the ones who could prevent Tadej Pogacar from raising his arms on Saturday in Bergamo:

The first is the most obvious: his UAE teammate Isaac del Toro. He is by far the most in-form rider after Pogacar himself at the end of the season after winning 5 Italian classics in the last few weeks (GP Industria, Giro della Toscana, Coppa Sabatini, Trofeo Matteotti and Giro dell'Emilia).

Believing (it seems obvious) that Pogacar's's form will not drop from here to Saturday's start in Como, to think that a tactical move would leave the Mexican in the lead and Pogi would stay behind controlling other possible rivals could give him the victory is not out of the question, taking into consideration the current situation and how strongly Del Toro himself is riding.

Remco Evenepoel is the closest to him. The problem he has is that on the climbs Pogacar has the ability to drop the Olympic Champion, and the opposite has not been seen anytime recently.

So, taking into account that he has been in very good shape at the end of the year with his double gold-silver in the World and European Championships, to think that he is the only one who could hypothetically hold him to the finish line and beat him in a sprint, although it sounds very complicated, it would not be impossible.

Finding a third with a real chance of beating Pogacar is a tall order. Names like Primoz Roglic, Lenny Martinez, Richard Carapaz, Tom Pidcock, Egan Bernal, Mikel Landa, Ben O'Connor or even the young French talent Paul Seixas after his great European could be in discussion.

So, I have decided to go with Julian Alaphilippe who is showing great sensations at the end of the season, who already beat Pogacar in the GP of Quebec and who has just finished on the podium in the Tre Valli Varesine. Obviously it would have to be from the breakaway the possible victory of the Frenchman from Tudor.

Please let us know in the comments which possible rivals you could have for Tadej Pogacar this Saturday, October 11 in Il Lombardia, as we are sure that his not winning would be one of the biggest surprises in this season finale.