Profile & Route Il Lombardia 2023

Profile. On the 7th of October, the peloton takes on the final monument of the season. Il Lombardia, or the classic of the fallen leaves, is the final big race of the season and the most important one-day race guided towards the climbers.

Over 4600 meters of climbing throughout some long 239 kilometers. It's a tough tough race, and proving it's point as the most flexible monument as it brings in a completely different route this year compared to the classic, reversing the roles as Como takes up the start of the race, and the beautiful city of Bergamo receives the finale. The route starts off and goes through the Madonna del Ghisallo early on but it won't have a meaningful role this year, not climbing through it's traditional side.

The real race starts a couple of hours in. They won't be decisive but the fatigue will start to be felt with two ascents coming in quick succession, they will summit with 138 and 110 kilometers to go respectively. They will be 7.5Km at 7.3% and 6.9Km at 5%.

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The attacking side of the race should start around here though. The climb to Passo della Crocetta will open things up, it summits with 77Km to go, isn't overly steep but is long and doesn't have a descent right after. Following this year's trend it's likely to see moves coming over the top of this climb, as teams will be looking to place riders in front and force a chase for the rivals. They can be dangerous, there will be a plateau before the hilltop at Zambia Alta which summits with 64Km to go and antecedes a very technical descent. Safe to say there's a lot of potential for the race to break apart, specially for those who aren't so confident in their descending ability.

That's because the main climb of the day doesn't really offer space to surprise. Slow ramp up, the Passo Di Ganda is a hard ascent, it steepens towards the summit so likely we'll have a very explosive showdown in it's final 2 kilometers, it summits with 32Km to the finish, a very reduced selection should be made up to this point as it's where the main attacks will come, but there's still a lot of racing to do.

Another very technical descent from Ganda will drop the riders in the valley that leads to Bergamo where there will be around 10 kilometers to reorganize everything and those who need to put on a chase. Interesting dynamics may be played out here, in the final 5 kilometers it will be again an attacked race surely. Hard to imagine gaps coming out of the Bergamo Alta ascent as it's tiny compared to what the riders have faced so far, but it's always possible. It's a very scenic finale, the riders will drop back down into the city center in for the final sprint, or a glorious solo celebration.