Michael Storer scored the first Monument podium of his career, finishing in third place behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) at Il Lombardia on Saturday.
Racing for Tudor Pro Cycling, owned and managed by retired pro Fabian Cancellara, Storer said this result was the most memorable part of his season.
"I'm super grateful for everything. The team will be super happy. I'm sure my phone will be exploded now. Fabian went on the recon with us and was super motivated for this race, even though he wasn't racing," he said.
Storer was part of a select group that formed on the lower slopes of the decisive final climb, the Passo di Ganda, along with Pogačar and his teammates Jay Vine and Isaac del Toro, Evenepoel and Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
Pogačar then launched a searing attack halfway up the climb, with 36km to go and quickly built his lead to nearly a minute as Evenepoel, Seixas, and Storer were unable to respond, the three riders settling into a chase, Del Toro sitting on their wheels.
Not giving up, Evenepoel distanced his rivals, Seixas and then Del Toro, while Storer hung on by a thread, but Pogačar had already pushed his lead out to a minute, with the pair racing for second place.
Storer explained that he was distanced from Evenepoel, largely because of the effort it took to try and stay with him through the hairpin turns on the descent.
"The problem was that Remco is super areo, and just sprinting out of the corners. Every time out of the switchbacks, I was on his wheel; the problem was that it was just burning my legs every sprint. When I dropped a bit, some of the corners, usually I'm a bit more conservative, but today I went all-in on the descents," he said.
"It would have been good to stay with Remco, but unfortunately, too many times on those descents, I was sprinting out of the corners."
Storer said he struggled over the last small ascent of the Colle Aperto, but nonetheless was pleased to finish in third place, 3:14 behind Pogačar in Bergamo.
"I was just in a world of pain on that last climb. I haven't gone that deep many times in my life before," he said, calling third place an unexpected surprise.
Earlier this year, he won a stage and placed fifth overall at Paris-Nice, won a stage and the overall title at Tour of the Alps, finished 10th overall at the Giro d'Italia and won a stage podium at the Tour de France. He also recently won the Memorial Marco Pantani.
"It's the highlight I wasn't expecting to come at the very end. I feel like there have been a lot of highlights this year. As I said before, I can be proud of my season, proud of today, and proud of my team."
