“La Conti” Groupama-FDJ doesn’t own anymore the crown of Il Lombardia U23. However, around Oggiono, this Saturday, the riders of the French squad delivered a complete and offensive race in the 2025 edition of the race. One year after Brieuc Rolland’s win, three of Jérôme Gannat’s riders joined the day’s breakaway before Baptiste Grégoire secured a solid top-10 finish (9th). The season will conclude next weekend at the Paris-Tours Under-23.
On a route unchanged from recent seasons, and therefore identical to the one Brieuc Rolland dominated last year, “La Conti” set off this Saturday to tackle its “small” Il Lombardia. “We first did a twenty-two-kilometre circuit four times, then we skirted Lake Lecco to reach the Madonna del Ghisallo,” said Jérôme Gannat. Located sixty kilometres from the finish, this climb was followed by two other ones in the last twenty-five kilometres. However, the race was partially decided earlier. “A breakaway went after sixty kilometres,” said Jérôme. “There were thirteen riders in front, and we were very well represented with three guys: Titouan Fontaine, Reef Roberts and Eliott Boulet. It was very, very good, even if our two best climbers, Rémi and Baptiste, weren’t there. There were quite a few U23 riders at the European Championships, so we knew there was a chance the breakaway would make it to the finish. It played out a bit like last year, except that the leading group had more gap before the climb of the Madonna del Ghisallo this year”.
“The team’s attitude is really good,” Jérôme Gannat
After about fifty kilometres of escape and more than two hours of racing at an average speed of around 48 km/h, the breakaway reached the main climb of the day with a three-minute lead over the rest of the competition. “On the climb of the Madonna del Ghisallo, which is a Monument of Il Lombardia, we lost Reef, then Eliott,” added Jérôme. “Titouan held on a bit longer, but he reached the summit 30 seconds behind the first group of eight riders. He then remained at 30-40 seconds for almost twenty-five kilometres without ever being able to bridge across. In the peloton, around twenty riders went clear on the climb, including Baptiste and Rémi. They caught Eliott and Reef, who pulled to try to reduce the gap with the breakaway, but there was still a gap of 1 minute and 40 seconds before the last two climbs”. On the ascents of Ravellino (6.3 km at 5%) and Marconaga di Ello (1 km at 9%), the leading group was reduced to four riders, who were then able to battle for victory.
Callum Thornley claimed victory, while Baptiste Grégoire was able to break away from the peloton to snatch ninth place, being the first rider not present in the breakaway to cross the line. “It was a good day”, concluded Jérôme. “For some time now, the team’s attitude has been really good. We’re present in the breakaways, in the moves. We maybe deserved better, the ideal would have been to have Baptiste or Rémi in front, but we can’t ask for too much either when we have three out of thirteen in the breakaway. We still have Paris-Tours U23 next week to try to finish this season in style.”