Tadej Pogacar crossed the finish line first at Il Lombardia and held up his open hand, each finger representing the record-equaling five times he was won the Italian classic.
It capped an incredible season, which includes a fourth Tour de France title, with a successful defense of the world road race crown as he matched Fausto Coppi's five wins at the Italian race on Saturday.
Pogacar's winning streak has come in consecutive years, while Coppi won the Lombardy event in 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1954.
The Slovenian cycling star completed the 241-kilometer (150-mile) race, which included six climbs, in 5 hours, 45 minutes. Top challenger Remco Evenepoel was second, 1 minute, 48 seconds behind. Michael Storer finished third, more than three minutes behind.
Pogacar has won three of the five one-day Monument races this season, after also prevailing in the Tour de Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He is the first rider to do that since Eddy Merckx in 1969, 1971, 1972 and 1975.
Final positions (Como-Bergamo, 241km)
1 T Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG 5h 45m 53s, 2 R Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 1m 48s, 3 M Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling Team at 3:14, 4 Q Simmons (USA) Lidl-Trek at 3:39, 5 I del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG at 4:16, 6 T Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, 7 P Seixas (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, 8 E Bernal (Col) INEOS Grenadiers at same time, 9 J Vine (Aus) UAE Team Emirates-XRG at 4:18, 10 C Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Team Visma | Lease a Bike at 4:30
Selected Others: 11 A Yates (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates-XRG at 4mins 49secs, 14 B Tulett (Gbr) Team Visma | Lease a Bike at 5:21, 17 O Onley (Gbr) Team Picnic PostNL at 5:38, 38 E Dunbar (Irl) Team Jayco-AlUla at 7:07, 91 B Koerdt (Gbr) Team Picnic PostNL at 23:24, DNF: B Healy (Irl) EF Education-EasyPost, A Ryan (Irl) EF Education-EasyPost
AP
