If it were positioned differently in the season, Michal Kwiatkowski would count himself among the top favourites for Il Lombardia - a race that requires the kind of climbing prowess, descending skills and punchy sprint he displayed en route to winning Milan-San Remo - but the Team Sky rider played down his chances of book-ending a stellar 2017 season with Monument victories, citing fatigue from a long and successful season.
"I would love to do Lombardia well, but the season has been very long," Kwiatkowski said in an interview on Team Sky's website. "For sure, we will be up there as a team and we will try to do our best to win the race."
The Polish rider will join Mikel Landa, Sergio Henao, Gianni Moscon, Wout Poels - any one of which could be a contender in Lombardy - and Mikel Nieve, Diego Rosa and Salvatore Puccio in Team Sky's line-up for the Race of the Falling Leaves, and seems prepared to support them rather than the other way around.
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"Even if I am not there for the victory I know I can do a lot of work for some of the other guys," he said. "We will see how the race goes. It's the last Monument and of course, I would love to do it well, but if any of my teammates can win it then we will go for it.
"That's the strength of our team - we can play a few cards in these races. Let's hope a Team Sky jersey will be on the top step of the podium."
Kwiatkowski's first season with Sky was plagued by illnesses and under-performances, the result of some unsuccessful experimentation with his race schedule. Being sick in February threw off his preparation the Classics, although he managed a win in the E3 Harelbeke. In 2017, he returned to a more traditional programme, using the early season stage races to ramp up for the season - his second place in the Volta ao Algarve showed the direction he was heading.
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