IL LOMBARDIA
ESTABLISHED 1905 EDITIONS 113
The final monument of the year is also one of the most evocative and beautiful races in cycling. Of course, Il Lombardia is a sporting challenge, and its mountainous parcours always provides a worthy winner. But even more than that, it sits happily in its isolated spot on the cycling calendar and represents the end of the year, the turning of the seasons and a reminder that all good things must come to an end. The melancholy of the late autumn colours which have given the race its nickname of ‘The Race of the Falling leaves’ is all part of the atmosphere of the event.
By this point in the season, most of the riders who would be best suited to this event - the grand tour climbers - are already on their winter breaks. However, those who extend their season to incorporate one last big race can often be rewarded with a big win.
For the last decade, Il Lombardia has been the preserve of the climbers - 2019 winner Bauke Mollema and his predecessors Thibaut Pinot, Vincenzo Nibali, Esteban Chaves, Dan Martin and Joaquim Rodríguez have competed with varying degrees of success in one-day races, but have all thrived in the high mountains of the grand tours. Before that, Lombardia favoured the classics riders, who were coincidentally mainly Italian - Michele Bartoli, Paolo Bettini and Damiano Cunego in his second act as a one-day rider, along with Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert, who won his first monument here over 10 years ago.
The mountainous route makes tactics a lot less complicated than the other monuments. ‘Be a very good climber’ would be the first instruction given to any contender. But organisers RCS are habitual tinkerers with the order of climbs and the route. What works one year might not work the next.
However, while the tactics and shape of the race change every year, the beautiful scenery around Lake Como does not. It’s the one thing that endures and it’s a fittingly beautiful end to the cycling season.