Saturday’s Il Lombardia is set to be a race within a race as teams fight for victory in the final major Classic of the 2016 season and precious UCI WorldTour ranking points.
The tough route of the 110th edition of the 'Race of the falling leaves' includes 4,400m of climbing and several new climbs as it snakes from Como to Bergamo. With rain also expected at the weekend, the 241km race should see a select group of climbers emerge and fight for victory.
The Classics season begins with Milan-San Remo in the spring, with riders excited about racing to the sunny Italian coast in late March. Come October and the leaves are falling in the Lombardy hills. The now-tired riders are looking happily towards their end of season break but first they face a final and important big race effort.
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UCI points are awarded to the top 10 finishers at Il Lombardia on a sliding scale, from 100 for the winner to 4 for tenth place. Each point could prove to be decisive for this year's WorldTour team rankings and consequently for the final 2017 WorldTour licences.
Movistar are on course to win the WorldTour team rankings yet again but Tinkoff is only 70 points adrift. A disastrous day for the Spanish team could give the Russian squad the chance to celebrate before its extinction.
Whatever the outcome, team owner Oleg Tinkov is no doubt preparing to open some vintage bottles of wine on Saturday at the team's special party in Milan. The team is on a high, despite its demise, because Peter Sagan has topped the individual WorldTour rankings after his successful season as world champion.
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