Grand Tour season is over and the Road World Championships is in the rearview mirror too, but the season still has one Monument left up its sleeve. You could be forgiven for feeling some bike racing fan fatigue by this point, but if you can work up the appetite for one last big one-day showdown this Saturday, you'll be rewarded by perhaps the most scenic race of the year, and a high-powered start list too.
The world's best bike racer, fresh off of recent wins at Worlds, European Championships, and Tre Valli Varesine, will try to make history this weekend as he pursues a ridiculous fifth straight win at Il Lombardia. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) matched Fausto Coppi last year when he took his fourth straight win in the race, just as the Italian legend did between 1946 and 1949, but Pogačar would be the first ever to win the Race of the Falling Leaves five times in a row. In fact, he's never lost at Lombardia. Coppi took his own record fifth career Lombardia win a few years after his fourth victory, and a win would thus bring Pogačar level with Coppi for career Lombardia wins as well.
A victory at Il Lombardia would also move Pogačar clear of Coppi, Sean Kelly, and Costante Girardengo for third-most career Monument wins in what would be his 10th. Not bad for a rider who is also the sport's dominant Grand Tour specialist.
Given the way things have gone for Pogačar for almost two years, it is hard to bet against him at Il Lombardia, but Remco Evenepoel headlines a field of would-be challengers. Here is everything you need to know about the final Monument of the season ...
The favorites
We'll break down the contenders more thoroughly below, but as a sneak peek, here are our top favorites for the victory ...
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Tadej Pogačar
⭐⭐⭐⭐: N/A
⭐⭐⭐: Remco Evenepoel
⭐⭐: Isaac del Toro, Tom Pidcock, Primož Roglič, Paul Seixas
⭐: Julian Alaphilippe, Adam Yates, Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz, Christian Scaroni, Lenny Martinez, Romain Grégoire, Neilson Powless, Mattias Skjelmose, Toms Skujins
The route
Il Lombardia always takes riders on a trip through the stunning scenery of northern Italy near Lake Como, but it switches route directions annually, alternating between starting in Bergamo and finishing in Como one year, and then starting in Como and finishing Bergamo the next. Last year saw a Bergamo start and a Como finish, and so naturally the race will do the opposite this time around.
Interestingly enough, the alternating routes don't seem to have much an impact on how the race goes down, because whatever the specifics of the percorso, Il Lombardia challenges riders in similar ways each year, with several challenging climbs throughout the day, building towards a climber-friendly finale. With a Bergamo finish on tap for this year, riders will tackle the iconic Madonna del Ghisallo early on in the day and then four more ascents of moderate difficulty before the final 50 km, where the Passo di Ganda awaits.
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