The leaves on the trees are slowly turning crisp colours of yellow, orange and red, and floating down to the pavement below. It can only mean it is time for Il Lombardia, the final monument of the season.
The Tour of Turkey and the inaugural Tour of Guangxi will complete this year's WorldTour calendar but Il Lombardia will be the final major hit-out for most of the big-name riders in the 2017 season. The route has been reversed from last year, starting Bergamo and finishing in Como, giving the riders the same parcours as was seen two years ago.
Last year's champion, Esteban Chaves, has been counted out of a title defence after breaking his shoulder in a crash during the Giro dell'Emilia. Despite this, four former winners will be on the start line in Bergamo as well as two of last year's podium finishers, giving more potential winners than fingers on both hands. Cyclingnews has whittled the list down to 10 riders to watch this Saturday, October 7.
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Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida)
In the absence of Esteban Chaves, Vincenzo Nibali is the most recent winner to start Il Lombardia on Saturday. It will be Nibali's first appearance at the race of the falling leaves since he won with a solo effort in 2015.
The win was Nibali's first ever monument title, having finished on the podium at Milan-San Remo and Liege-Bastogne-Liege three years previously. Il Lombardia suits him best, and he heads into this year's edition as arguably the big favourite with second place at the Giro dell'Emilia and third at Tuesday's Tre Valli Varesine.
Getting outdone by Alexandre Geniez and Thibaut Pinot in the finale of Tre Valli Varesine was a disappointment for the Sicilian but the way that he attacked his rivals on the climbs confirms that he is on form and he will be a difficult animal to wrangle on Saturday.
Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac)
Mikel Landa (Team Sky)
Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors)
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb)
Fabio Aru (Astana)
Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal)
Thibaut Pinot (FDJ)
Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors)
Diego Rosa (Team Sky)
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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