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2016 Il Lombardia preview

The Race of the Falling Leaves is Ryder Hesjedal's swansong

Saturday is the conclusion of the 2016 WorldTour, with the 110th Il Lombardia, or the Race of the Falling Leaves, in Northern Italy. As the last Monument of the season, it holds a certain appeal to riders who want to cap their year with a bang or redemption.

Here are the 2016 Monument podiums so far:
Milan-San Remo: 1) Démare (FDJ) 2) Swift (Sky) 3) Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal)
Tour of Flanders: 1) Sagan (Tinkoff) 2) Cancellara (Trek) 3) Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo)
Paris-Roubaix: 1) Hayman (Orica) 2) Boonen (Etixx) 3) Stannard (Sky)
Liège-Bastogne-Liège : 1) Poels (Sky) 2) Albasini (Orica) 3) Costa (Lampre)

This year Il Lombardia long at 240-km and has 1000 more metres of climbing than 2015’s edition. There are eight climbs if you count the bump of Bergamo Alta 3.2-km from the finish line in the city of Bergamo.


The route starts in the city of Como and then makes its way north where it rolls up the most famous climb on the route, the Madonna del Ghisallo, a revered place for cyclists with a chapel at the top and a cycling museum within.


At the mid-point of the route, the real climbing begins with the longest of the ascents, the Valcava, 11.5-km of 8%. Soon after come two brand new climbs, the Sant’Antonio Abbandonato and Miragolo San Salvatore, 6.5-km of 8.9% and 8.7-km of 7% respectively.

The penultimate climb, the Selvino, which peaks with 27-km remaining, is where the big move might be made, although that Bergamo Alta “bump” is 1.2-km of 7.9% and might elicit the real fireworks.

Although holder Vincenzo Nibali isn’t returning to defend, five former winners will be on the start line. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain/Katusha) would love to take his third title before retirement, although the end of his career is seemingly up in the air. Oliver Zaugg (Switzerland/IAM), whose career highlight was winning Il Lombardia in 2011, is definitely bowing out after the race.

Irishman Daniel Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) won in 2014 and likes the climbing, which might be a little too much for 2009 and 2010 champion Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), his last race in BMC colours before joining Martin at Etixx next season.

Fabio Aru (Italy/Astana) is looking to close out 2016 with success after a somewhat mediocre season that followed his first Grand Tour victory in the 2015 Vuelta a España. He’ll have a good team around him and share protected rider duties with Angel Lopez (Colombia), winner of Wednesday’s Milano-Torino.

Fabio Aru
Aru wants 2016 to go out on a high note.

Martin also has a teammate who is a potential winner, the always dangerous Julian Alaphilippe. Recently the Frenchman came runner-up to Sagan in the European Championships, and in the spring we was runner-up to Alejandro Valverde in the Classic La Flèche Wallonne.

Ignore Simon Yates (Great Britain/Orica-BikeExchange) at your peril. I don’t think anyone ignores his cheerful Colombian teammate Esteban Chaves anymore.

This will be Ryder Hesjedal‘s final race for Trek-Segafredo before retirement. He has raced Il Lombardia twice, coming 6th in 2012. Hesjedal’s Dutch teammate Bauke Mollema was lethal in taking the Clasica San Sebastian in late July.

Ryder Hesjedal
Sixteen years as a road pro come to an end Saturday.

Canadian Michael Woods looked in great form during his exciting tussle with Angel Lopez in the Milano-Torino.