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Il Lombardia preview: a tough Race of the Falling Leaves caps off WorldTour

Sunday will see the final race of the 2015 WorldTour, the 109th Giro di Lombardia, or the Race of the Falling Leaves. This year's parcours is a particularly tough one, with a return of the fearsome Muro di Sormano and two 5-km climbs within the final 20-km.

October 1, 2015
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Sunday will see the final race of the 2015 WorldTour, the 109th Giro di Lombardia, or the Race of the Falling Leaves. This year’s parcours is a particularly tough one, with a return of the fearsome Muro di Sormano and two 5-km climbs within the final 20-km.

As a Classic Monument, it is a long affair at 245-km from Bergamo to Como, with six climbs scattered across the parcours, but four of those ascents coming in the final 70-km. The nastiest climb, starting at the 191-km mark, is the Sormano, which the organizers included in the 2014 race after a 40-year absence. It has a reasonable beginning but the final 2-km average 15.8% with a maximum grade of 27%. Yowza.

Whoever hasn’t climbed off by then drops into the lakeside town of Como and then assails the two 5-km climbs of Civiglio and San Fermo Della Battaglia, the latter peaking five-kilometres from the finish. After a dash downhill, the riders hang a left hand turn and then battle for the title on a wide, straight road.

Over the past thirteen editions, five riders–Michele Bartoli, Paolo Bettini, Damiano Cunego, Philippe Gilbert and Joaquim Rodriguez–have won back to back titles. Can Irishman Dan Martin repeat in his last hurrah for Cannondale-Garmin before heading off to Etixx-QuickStep? Or will Rodriguez reclaim his wins of 2013 and 2014?

Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) will be feeling confident after winning the Tre Valli Varesine on Wednesday. He’ll have support from Thursday’s Milano-Torino champion Diego Rosa. Runner-up over the last two editions, Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) is the 2015 WorldTour champion and hopes to climb a step to take his fourth career Monument after three Liège-Bastogne-Liège triumphs.

The French teams are sending crack squads. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) leads the way, while Ag2R has Domenico Pozzovivo, Romain Bardet and Alexis Vuillermoz carrying its hopes. Etixx have two likely lads–Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) and Rigoberto Uran (Colombia), who are off to Sky and Cannondale-Garmin respectively. Beware of Kwiatkowski’s compatriot Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), coming off a Vuelta a España podium spot.

So far Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) is the only Canadian participant confirmed. Ignore his British teammate Adam Yates, recent winner of the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian, at your peril.