Feel The Race: Seeing Lombardia

Il Lombardia is the view over Como from the Brunate terrace, the view over Bellagio from Ghisallo and the view of the lake from the Sormano downhill.  
 
It’s the blurred vision of the climbs ridden above threshold. The view of the wheel in front of you when you’re feeling strong and that you keep in your sights, or the view of that same wheel as it rides off. One agonizing centimetre after the other.
 
It’s the sequence of numbers that inexorably come one after the other up the Sormano wall, telling you the altitude. Too close to each other for a normal climb.

It’s the look on the children’s faces and on the local elderly cyclists who have ridden up on their bikes, kit and caps, to wait for the riders along the course.

 

To win Il Lombardia you have to know when to attack: it’s such a strange race that every year it’s won in a different way. The look on the rivals’ faces never lies: the one who reads it at the right moment, wins it.
 
Il Lombardia is the red and yellow of the autumn leaves, the blue of the lake and the azure of the sky.
 
For the fans it’s about taking a look at the history of the sport in the Ghisallo church and museum. For the uninitiated it’s the window shopping in the centre of Como.

Il Lombardia is a game of looks. Between the riders, to understand when to attack. Between summer and winter, to understand when the landscape changes appearance. Between one season and the next, to evaluate how things have gone and make plans for the future.

Il Lombardia is the curtain call on the season. As the curtain comes down a heartfelt applause breaks out for a season that has lived up to expectations. A season that deserved to be lived along the roads, with all our senses. Because cycling, true and genuine cycling, is an experience that must be lived like this and in no other way.

Il Lombardia is about savouring a good break of ten riders and seeing that the peloton is relentlessly closing the gap before the important part of the race begins.

It was about witnessing the last race of Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde with our very own eyes, aware that this was an historical moment.

We’d already read the script for Il Lombardia. Even though we’ve often seen Pogačar winning like this, we will never stop marvelling at his dominance. Knowing how it ends doesn’t diminish our desire to see it again and again.