2014 IL Lombardia, Sunday October 6th

Exactly a week after the Road World Championships in Florence, won by the Portuguese rider Rui Costa over Spain's Joaquin Rodriguez, a riveting revenge is expected on the road of the 107th edition of Il Lombardia; Rodriquez won last year's Il Lombardia.

The “falling leaves classic”, organised by RCS Sport/La Gazzetta dello Sport, on Sunday 6th October will have the champions of racing pitted against each other. The 242km route from Bergamo to Lecco, will climb the slopes of Valico di Valcava, Colle Brianza, Colma di Sormano (with the mighty Muro di Sormano), Madonna del Ghisallo and Villa Vergano. It’s going to be highly dramatic and hardly fought.

Muro di Sormano from Jered Gruber on Vimeo.

Amongst the provisional starting list, and alongside the last edition’s winner, Joaquin Rodriguez, there are the following big names: the newly crowned World Champion, Portugal’s Rui Costa, Italians Vincenzo Nibali, Ivan Basso, Franco Pellizotti, Damiano Cunego, Michele Scarponi, and Diego Ulissi; British rider Chris Froome; American Tejay Van Garderen; Australian Cadel Evans; the Colombians Carlos Betancur, Rigoberto Uran Uran, and Nairo Quintana; Spanish Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde; France’s Thibaut Pinot and Thomas Voeckler; Holland’s Bauke Mollema and Robert Gesink; Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert and Greg Van Avermaet; Ireland’s Daniel Martin; Slovakia’s Peter Sagan, and Poland’s rider Michal Kwiatkowski.

Begun in 1905, Il Lombardia (previously known as Giro di Lombardia) has taken part every year except for 1943 and 1944 due to the Second World War.

Fausto Coppi has won the largest number of Il Lombardia titles with five in total: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1954.

This year's route and profile:

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