Como (Italy) (AFP) - French prodigy Paul Seixas ended his breakout season as a history-making Monument winner with a “dream” victory at the Giro di Lombardia on Saturday.

At 20 years and 16 days, Seixas became the youngest ever winner of the Classic of the Falling Leaves and the fourth-youngest winner of a Monument.

“It’s crazy, I don’t think I realise it. Everything went perfect,” said a delighted Seixas.

“My team-mates did a great, awesome job. They all pushed more than what they had to do.

“I had amazing legs, I had the feeling today was a great day. I managed to make the difference at the moment I wanted to.”

And he added that “it was a dream” to win this race.

Vuelta a Espana champion Enric Mas took second place, 48sec back, with Italian Giulio Ciccone rounding out the podium just over a minute behind the winner.

Seixas launched a devastating attack on the Civiglio climb with around 19km of the 239km one-day classic remaining, and within a kilometre, he had dropped all of his remaining challengers.

Olympic and European champion Remco Evenepoel was the first to flounder, followed shortly by pre-race favourite Isaac Del Toro and then world champion Brandon McNulty.

Evenepoel and McNulty eventually came home in fourth and fifth.

With cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar, the winner of the last five editions of Lombardia, missing due to injury, Seixas took his chance to end an incredible season as a Monument winner.

It was only his third ever Monument – the five most prestigious one-day classics on the calendar – having finished seventh at Lombardia last year and second at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April.

Pogacar had won both of those.

This success completes a remarkable first full season in the professional ranks for Seixas.

He was fourth at the Tour de France – his debut Grand Tour – in July, having won the Tour of the Basque Country and La Fleche Wallonne earlier in the year.

He had also impressed in second-placed finishes at Strade Bianche, Liege and the Montreal GP.

But he endured a disappointing world championships last month, cramping up in the final stages and finishing 15th, although a week earlier he had won the time-trial bronze medal behind specialists Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna.

- No looking back -

The race started five minutes behind schedule as the riders staged a brief protest to draw attention to safety concerns following a series of incidents involving vehicles on race routes.

With the dominant Pogacar missing, it promised to be a thrilling race.

Inside the final 60km, American Matteo Jorgenson and McNulty led a dangerous counter-attack behind the day’s breakaway.

Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team-mate Giulio Pellizzari led the chase and controlled the gap, ensuring the five counter-attackers were brought back 15km later.

With 20km left, the breakaway riders had around 30sec on the peloton, now driven by McNulty’s UAE Emirates XRG team-mate Adam Yates.

Seixas then upped the pace and soon passed the remaining breakaway riders, while dropping Evenepoel and Del Toro.

With 2km to go to the top of the Civiglio climb, only Tom Pidcock and Ciccone were able to follow Seixas.

But within another 500 metres, and still 18km to ride, he was alone.

Seixas had around 30sec over Ciccone and Mas over the top with the likes of Evenepoel, Del Toro and McNulty more than a minute adrift.

And from there, he never looked back.

Pidcock came home sixth, with Spanish veteran Pello Bilbao taking an impressive seventh place in his final race.