Tour of Lombardy 2021: Favourites

In recent years the short and excessively steep Muro di Sormano opened the finale with 50 kilometres to go before the decisive action occurred on the Civiglio in the outskirts of Como. The dynamics will be different now, as the climbs preceding the finale are much longer.

After having crested the 24 kilometres long Passo di Zamblapas with 65 kilometres remaining, the riders descend into the next valley. Then the Passo di Gandapas looms. Which is a climb of 9.2 kilometres with an average gradient of 7.3%, while the last third rises at almost 10%.

Following a 16 kilometres downhill and 7.5 kilometres on the flat the last hill climbs at 1.6 kilometres at 7.9% into the old town of Bergamo. The last part is spiced up by pebble paving before the riders fly down to the line.

So you have to be a versatile climber to survive the different kinds op uphill challenges, while descending skills come in handy, too. If a select group storms to the line a pair of fast legs is usefull as well.

Recent editions of Il Lombardia were won by Jakob Fuglsang (2020, Como finish), Bauke Mollema (2019, Como finish), Thibaut Pinot (2018, Como finish), Vincenzo Nibali (2017 and 2015, Como finish), Esteban Chaves (2016, Bergamo finish) and Dan Martin (2014, Bergamo finish).

Favourites Tour of Lombardy 2021

**** Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar, Julian Alaphilippe
*** Michael Woods, Remco Evenepoel, Sergio Higuita, Adam Yates
** Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida, Esteban Chaves, Benoît Cosnefroy
* Simon Yates, David Gaudu, Romain Bardet, Marc Hirschi, Alejandro Valverde