The 2023 highway season is winding down with the final handful of WorldTour and Girls’s WorldTour occasions quick approaching as October arrives. Whereas the peloton hits China, the Tour of Turkey, and 1.1 races in Belgium to spherical out one other yr, a packed late-season schedule of Italian one-day Classics can also be on the menu.
Over the following two weeks or so, seven races throughout a lot of Italy’s northern areas – Tuscany, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piemonte, and Veneto – come one after one other, culminating within the closing Monument of the season, Il Lombardia.
These Autumn Classics will play host to a few of the greatest names within the peloton as riders come collectively to battle it out for a giant win earlier than winding down for his or her winter breaks.
Be careful for names together with Tadej Pogačar, Simon Yates, Primož Roglič, Thibaut Pinot, Remco Evenepoel and prime girls’s riders together with residence favourites Elisa Longo Borghini and Marta Cavalli at races such because the Giro dell’Emilia, Gran Piemonte, and Giro del Veneto.
Learn on for Cyclingnews‘ information to this late-season batch of Italian races, operating from Thursday, September 28 to Sunday, October 15.
Location: Lissone – Lissone
Size: 195.7km
Ascent: 3,231m
Degree: 1.1
The Italian Autumn Classics kick off with the 76th Coppa Agostoni which contains a hilly mid-race circuit that proves decisive in deciding on the winner, or the decreased group which battles it out on the flat end.
4 circuits of the lap that includes the climbs of Sirtori (1.6km at 5.3%), the Colle Brianza (3.1km at 6.7%) and Lissolo (2.5km at 7.2%) mark the hardest a part of the 195.7km race.
Winners in recent times embody Sjoerd Bax, Alexey Lutsenko, and Gianni Moscon, with Bax taking the win from a gaggle of eight final trip.
Being a 1.1 race, the Coppa Agostoni is not a star-heavy lineup, however you may look out for Marc Hirschi, Diego Ulissi (UAE Crew Emirates), Ben O’Connor, Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën), Iván García Cortina, Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa), and Victor Lafay (Cofidis) this Wednesday.
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Location: Carpi – San Luca, Bologna
Size: 204.1km / 103.5km
Ascent: 3,027m / 619m
Degree: 1.Professional
Extra hills observe on Saturday with the older and extra prestigious Giro dell’Emilia, which options the well-known climb of San Luca within the coronary heart of Bologna. The lads’s race celebrates its 106th version this yr, whereas the newer girls’s race turns 10.
Hills alongside the 204.1km males’s route embody Samone (6.1km at 6.3%) and Monte Nonascoso (5.9km at 7.1%), however the huge problem comes with 5 late ascents of San Luca (2.1km at 9.4%).
The ladies’s race, in the meantime, is a simplified affair that includes far fewer climbs. It is a flat run from Carpi to Bologna adopted by two ascents of San Luca.
The ultimate battle for the road is normally the decisive level of the race, with the strongest puncheurs going head-to-head on the closing rise. Aleksandr Vlasov, Primož Roglič (twice), and Enric Mas have all triumphed right here in recent times, whereas Elisa Longo Borghini and Demi Vollering are among the many girls’s honour roll.
The 2023 males’s lineup options the primary battle between Tadej Pogačar (UAE Crew Emirates) and Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) for the primary time because the 2022 Tour de France. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Enric Mas (Movistar), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) wil additionally function. The ladies’s lineup has but to be revealed.
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Location: Parabiago – Legnano
Size: 186.7km
Ascent: 1,935m
Degree: 1.Professional
Subsequent Monday brings extra hills because the peloton heads to Legnano close to Milan, albeit on a gentler route by comparability with the Giro dell’Emilia.
The race heads out north from the begin to deal with seven laps of a hilly circuit that includes a climb named the Piccolo Stelvio (1.7km at 7.1%).
The climb – used six occasions earlier than including one other ascent final yr – did not delay the likes of Sonny Colbrelli and Phil Bauhaus from successful previously, whereas Remco Evenepoel scored a solo 31km win two years in the past. Final yr, Davide Ballerini sprinted to victory from a 58-man group.
So then, we are able to possible count on one other day for the versatile and punchy sprinters this trip. Begin record particulars are scant on the time of writing, although Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is the headline title confirmed to race, whereas Marc Hirschi heads up UAE Crew Emirates’ choice.
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Location: Busto Arsizio – Varese
Size: 196.5km / 112.3km
Ascent: 3,200m~ / 1,300m~
Degree: 1.Professional / 1.1
One other race in Lombardy marks the following staging publish within the highway to Il Lombardia with the 102nd Tre Valli Varesine. Coming 4 days earlier than the massive one, that is normally the final tuneup earlier than the Monument and so instructions a stellar begin record.
The 196.5km race options two differing circuits, each full of hills. Within the males’s race, look out for 9 laps of a circuit that includes Casbeno (2.5km at 4.9%) and Montello (2.5km at 5.2%) earlier than two laps of a circuit that includes Morosolo (1.6km at 7.8%) and Casciago (1.8km at 5%) both facet of one other Casbeno-Montello circuit.
The third version of the ladies’s race, lengthened for 2023, takes in 4 laps of the Casbeno-Montello circuit, with each races concluding with a closing climb of Casbeno.
Latest winners embody Roglič, Pogačar, and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), and a equally star-studded lineup might be anticipated this yr, too, with each Slovenians confirmed as racing.
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Location: Borgofranco d’Ivrea – Favria
Size: 152km
Ascent: Unknown
Degree: 1.Professional
The Gran Piemonte is an odd race in that the parcours by no means appears to remain the identical. In 2019 the race concluded with an Egan Bernal summit end win at Oropa whereas the following yr featured an infinite succession of hills in Barolo wine nation received by George Bennett.
2021 was extra sprinter-friendly, received by Matthew Partitions, whereas Iván García Cortina prevailed in final yr’s thrilling battle amongst a break of mid-race attackers.
This yr, the 107th version of the race, must be one for the puncheurs and versatile sprinters, with a flat opening 90km giving option to 4 main hills on the highway to Favria. Colleretto Castelnuovo (7.1km at 3.4%), Faiallo (5.1km at 5.4%), Alpette (4.9km at 9%), and Prascorsano (4.4km at 3.4%) pose the massive challenges inside the race’s closing 60km.
As soon as once more, look out for Wout van Aert right here. The Belgian will conclude his highway season on the 152km race earlier than heading to the UCI Gravel World Championships on the weekend.
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Location: Como – Bergamo
Size: 238km
Ascent: 4,646m
Degree: WorldTour
It is the massive one – the final Monument of the yr and the most important, longest, and hardest of those late-season races.
The 117th version of Il Lombardia will play host to the ultimate highway racing showdown of a bunch of biking’s huge stars and with it a return to the 2021 route because the race flips from Bergamo-Como to Como-Bergamo.
The famed Madonna del Ghisallo (8.6km at 6.2%) is the primary climb of the day, mendacity inside the primary 40km, whereas the center of the route contains a succession of onerous hills. Roncola Alta (9.4km at 6.6%), Berbenno (6.8km at 4.6%), Passo della Crocetta (11km at 6.2%), and Zambla Alta (9.5km at 3.5%) all serve to melt the legs forward of the grand finale.
That comes 22km from the end with the Passo di Ganda (9.2km at 7.3%), the final probability to choose earlier than the race to Bergamo Alta and the steep, cobbled Colle Aperto climb, the place the race would possibly simply be received.
The headline acts might be Pogačar (who seeks win quantity three), Evenepoel, and Roglič, whereas Mas, the retiring Pinot, and EF Schooling-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz are others to observe amongst a bunch of prime contenders rounding out their 2023 season in Lombardy.
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Location: Tombolo – Monte Berico, Vicenza
Size: 170km
Ascent: 1,670m
Degree: 1.Professional
The racing would not finish with Il Lombardia because the peloton heads east to Veneto for the ultimate two races of the Italian season.
The Giro del Veneto returned in 2021 after 9 years off the calendar and presents one other hilly circuit race, albeit a brief one at 170km. The church at Monte Berico, searching over Vicenza, hosts the ultimate this yr in a change of route from the flatter finishes of the previous two editions.
In consequence, do not count on the small teams coming to the road with Xandro Meurisse and Matteo Trentin main the way in which as we noticed in 2021 and 2022. The climb to the road (800m at 9.5%) might be tackled 5 occasions, and it is the place Giovanni Visconti and Philippe Gilbert triumphed on levels of the 2013 and 2015 Giro d’Italia.
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Location: Mel – Bassano del Grappa
Size: 195km
Ascent: 2,340m
Degree: 1.Professional
Lastly, all of it involves an finish with the Veneto Basic, a brand new race launched simply two years in the past. Hosted in Bassano del Grappa, the race has seen Samuele Battistella and Marc Hirschi take solo triumphs in earlier editions. Sure, it is one other one for the hilly specialists, with loads of steep gradients mendacity in wait to impress the successful choice.
There’s set to be little change within the route from the 2022 version this time, with 4 laps of a circuit together with La Rosina (2.7km at 5.9%) adopted by the identical once more with the quick however steep La Tisa (300m at 12.3%) earlier than the late surprisingly named Diesel Farm cobbled climb (1.3km at 9.6%) and the Contra’ Soarda (500m at 11.4%), each inside the ultimate 5km.
The race makes the step up from 1.1 to 1.Professional this yr, although already welcomed seven WorldTour groups in 2022. With a protracted low season quickly to observe, it’s going to actually be one to observe.
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