The 2024 street racing season is winding in direction of its conclusion as the ultimate Monument of the 12 months, Il Lombardia, lies in look forward to the boys’s peloton on October 12.
The closing high-prestige race of the season attracts to an in depth a brief however intense interval of racing throughout Italy that includes seven males’s races and two girls’s races packed into every week, starting on October 5 with the Giro dell’Emilia.
Along the way in which, protecting the northern areas of Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, come races together with the Coppa Agostoni and Gran Piemonte. The conferences carry collectively a few of the greatest names within the males’s and ladies’s pelotons.
Read on for all the knowledge on the late-season batch of Italian Classic races, filling the upcoming calendar between Saturday, October 5 and Saturday, October 12.
October 5 – Giro dell’Emilia males & girls
- Location: Vignola – San Luca
- Length: 215.3km / 113.8km
- Ascent: 3,412m / 617m
- Level: 1.Pro
The run of races opens with prestigious Giro dell’Emilia which options the well-known climb of San Luca within the coronary heart of Bologna, a problem which shaped a part of the finale of stage 3 of this 12 months’s Tour de France. This 12 months, the boys’s race turns 107, whereas the ladies’s race runs its eleventh version.
Challenges filling out the 215km males’s route embody the climbs of Zocca (13.5km at 4%), Grizzana Morandi (6km at 6%) and Montechiaro (3.3km at 9.1%) earlier than 5 laps of the closing circuit and 5 ascents of San Luca (2.1km at 9.4%).
The 114km girls’s race, in the meantime, is way less complicated, that includes an extended, flat run-in earlier than two ascents of San Luca present the primary problem.
The closing climb to San Luca is usually the decisive level of the race following a wearing-down course of over the sooner hills. Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez) shot to victory final 12 months, whereas riders together with Enric Mas (Movistar) and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-ProTime) have additionally triumphed right here.
This 12 months’s males’s race brings Tadej Pogačar’s (UAE Team Emirates) first outing within the rainbow jersey. He’ll face off towards Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Roglič, Mas, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and extra. The girls’s lineup has but to be totally revealed, although Cat Ferguson and Liane Lippert will race for Movistar.
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October 6 – Coppa Agostoni
- Location: Lissone – Lissone
- Length: 166.7km
- Ascent: 2,890m
- Level: 1.1
On Sunday, the motion heads to Lombardy for the 77th Coppa Agostoni, a race that includes a mid-race hilly circuit which filters down the peloton forward of a flat run to the road in Lissone.
The early, flat run to the circuit has been reduce down for 2024, shortening the race size by nearly 30km. Four circuits of the lap that includes the climbs of Sirtori (1.6km at 5.3%), the Colle Brianza (3.1km at 6.7%) and Lissolo (2.5km at 7.2%) mark the hardest a part of the race.
Alexey Lutsenko, Gianni Moscon, and Davide Formolo have gained the race lately, with the Italian soloing house from 11km out final Autumn as teammate Marc Hirschi secured a UAE Team Emirates one-two end.
The 1.1 Coppa Agostoni is a tier under a few of the different races right here and two under the WorldTour Il Lombardia, that means the startlist is not as star-filled as different races. Hirschi and Tim Wellens head up a UAE squad, nevertheless, whereas Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) are amongst different names already confirmed.
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October 7 – Coppa Bernocchi
- Location: Legnano – Legnano
- Length: 174.3km
- Ascent: 1,969m
- Level: 1.Pro
There’s no let-up within the racing come Monday, with the Coppa Bernocchi close to Milan internet hosting a 3rd Classic in three days and one other hilly problem.
Like the Coppa Agostoni, the race begins and ends with a flat part in Legnano, whereas seven laps of a hilly circuit that includes the Piccolo Stelvio climb (1.7km at 5.8%) options because the hardest level of the race.
The climb would not postpone versatile sprinters from taking the win, albeit from decreased teams on the line. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) gained from a bunch of 5 final 12 months, whereas Sonny Colbrelli, Phil Bauhaus and Davide Ballerini have gained up to now.
Remco Evenepoel is the headline title on the startlist because the Belgian hopes to copy his 31km solo victory from 2021. Few different groups have been confirmed at this stage, although Marc Hirschi, Filippo Baroncini and Tim Wellens line up for UAE Team Emirates.
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October 8 – Tre Valli Varesine males & girls
- Location: Busto Arsizio – Varese
- Length: 200.3km / 136.3km
- Ascent: 3,377m / ?
- Level: 1.Pro
The closing warm-up for lots of the main stars heading for Il Lombardia would be the 103rd Tre Valli Varesine, held in Varese, Lombardy. This 12 months’s race comes up 4 days earlier than the ultimate Monument of the season.
An early hilly run north from Busto Arsizio brings the peloton to the primary circuit of the day, that includes the 2km at 5.3% hills of the Salita del Ronchi and Montello. The riders deal with eight laps of that earlier than one-and-a-half laps of an prolonged closing circuit, which provides the climb of Barasso (900m at 7.9%) to the sooner circuit.
The girls’s race, in the meantime, is predicated round six-and-a-half laps of a circuit that includes the Montello climb in Varese, with the end coming on the high of the hill.
Roglič, Pogačar and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) have all gained the race up to now whereas Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) and Liane Lippert (Movistar) are the reigning champions.
This time round, look out for Pogačar, Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and the soon-to-retire Domenico Pozzovivo (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), whereas the lineup for the ladies’s race has but to be revealed.
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October 10 – Gran Piemonte
- Location: Valdengo – Borgomanero
- Length: 182km
- Ascent: 1,650m
- Level: 1.Pro
Gran Piemonte encompasses a changeable route, morphing nearly yearly from a sprinter-friendly race to being one for the puncheurs. Last 12 months noticed Andrea Bagioli (Soudal-QuickStep) beat Marc Hirschi to the win in an version for the hill climbers.
Previous editions have seen Egan Bernal win on the summit end of Oropa, Matthew Walls prevail from a dash end and Iván García Cortina triumph from a mid-race breakaway.
This 12 months options one other new route, one which needs to be suited to the versatile sprinters in the beginning line.
The Passo della Colma (8.7km at 5.4%) is the toughest problem of the race at 63km from the road, whereas the ultimate 45km characteristic a sequence of lighter hills – Cremosina (4.9km at 2.9%), Traversagna (3.1km at 4%) and Maggiora (800m at 5.6%).
Puncheurs and climbers on the 2024 begin record embody Marc Hischi, Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Richard Carapaz, whereas quick finishers embody Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan).
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October 12 – Il Lombardia
- Location: Bergamo – Como
- Length: 252km
- Ascent: 4822m
- Level: WorldTour
It’s not the ultimate WorldTour race of the season, however Il Lombardia is the final Monument of the 12 months and the most important, hardest and longest of those late-season Italian races.
Once once more, the route flips back-to-front. For the 118th version this 12 months, the battle for the win will probably be performed out on the street from Bergamo to Como, because it was in 2020 and 2022.
It would not take lengthy for the climbing to start this 12 months, with the Forcellino di Bianzno (6.3km at 5.1%) bringing the primary of the 4,822 metres of elevation on the route. The climbs of the Passo di Ganda (9.4km a 7%), the Colle di Berberino (4.5km at 6.2%) and Valpiana (10.4km at 6.1%) all observe contained in the opening 105km.
A mid-race lull follows the descent from the Valpiana, earlier than the climbing begins once more 95km from the road with the Sella di Onigo (5.1km at 5.6%) and the well-known ascent of the Madonna del Ghisallo (8.1km at 3.7%).
The hardest problem of the ultimate is the Colma di Sormano, the 13.1km, 6.5% climb which peaks with 42km to run. In a change from earlier runs into Como, there isn’t any Civiglio climb that includes late on this 12 months, with the ultimate problem being San Fermo della Battaglia (3km at 6.4%), simply 6km from the end line.
Tadej Pogačar has dominated the current historical past of the race, successful two-up sprints towards Fausto Masnada and Enric Mas in 2021 and 2022 earlier than changing a 31km solo into a 3rd win in a row final trip.
This 12 months, he’ll be taking goal at Alfredo Binda’s quartet of wins, with the Italian mendacity one in need of all-time report holder Fausto Coppi. Among these seeking to forestall him from ending his historic season with one other huge victory will probably be Remco Evenepoel, Primož Roglič and 2019 winner Bauke Mollema, whereas he’ll have Juan Ayuso and João Almeida using in assist of him.
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