The Race of the Falling Leaves
The last Monument of the season: about 240 kilometers through the hills of Lombardy in October, with the finish in Como or in Bergamo.
Il Lombardia is a one-day bike race and the final Monument of the men's road calendar, held each October in northern Italy. The route changes every year: since 2014 the finish has moved between Como and Bergamo, and the climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo, above Lake Como, has been on the route in almost every edition since 1919.
Il Lombardia was first raced on November 12, 1905, and only the wartime editions of 1943 and 1944 have been missed. Its history is easiest to follow through its roads. The finish left Milan for Como, the Madonna del Ghisallo and the Muro di Sormano became its landmarks, and Fausto Coppi and Tadej Pogačar share the record of five wins.
Il Lombardia, also called the Giro di Lombardia, is a one-day professional bike race in the hills of Lombardy in northern Italy, held in October. It is the last of the season’s five Monuments, the one-day races that have each been run for more than a hundred years, and its autumn date gave it the nickname the race of the falling leaves.
Il Lombardia is about 240 kilometers long, roughly 150 miles, and the start and finish towns swap between Como and Bergamo. The 2025 race from Como to Bergamo measured 241 kilometers, and the 2026 route from Bergamo to Como 239.
For its first half century the Giro di Lombardia, or Tour of Lombardy, was a Milan race that started and finished in the city. Italians still call it the classica delle foglie morte, the race of the falling leaves, because it comes when the season is ending and the trees above Lake Como are turning.
The first edition was the idea of the journalist Tullo Morgagni, and La Gazzetta dello Sport organized it to give Pierino Albini a rematch with Giovanni Cuniolo, who had just beaten him on the track in Milan. Neither of them won it. Giovanni Gerbi finished 40 minutes ahead of Giovanni Rossignoli, and at 20 years old he is still the youngest winner.
The climb that gave the race its character first appeared on November 2, 1919. The road rises from Bellagio on the lake to the small sanctuary of the Madonna del Ghisallo, and Costante Girardengo reached the top 15 minutes clear that day. In 1949 Pope Pius XII declared the Madonna del Ghisallo the patron saint of cyclists, after a request from the local priest that Coppi and Gino Bartali supported.
Until the 1950s the Ghisallo was usually the last climb, and the riders who crossed it first tended to win. Alfredo Binda led over the top from 1924 through 1927. His four race victories came in 1925, 1926, 1927 and 1931. Bartali won three times and finished on the podium nine times, which is still the record.
Coppi’s first win, on October 27, 1946, came on the least impressive rise of the day. He attacked on the Ghisallo, but Motta and Casola caught him on the descent and the three reached Milan together. Inside the city Coppi went clear on the Ghisolfa flyover, a road bridge the organizer calls “a ramp so short that it was not even an actual climb”, and rode alone into the Vigorelli velodrome.
It was the first of four wins in a row, and the next three were long solos. In 1947 he dropped Fiorenzo Magni at Valbrona and rode the last 70 kilometers alone. In 1948 he went clear 83 kilometers from the finish and set a record of 25 minutes 20 seconds on the Ghisallo. His fifth win, in 1954, was the only one that came down to a sprint, and he beat Magni in it.
In 1960 Vincenzo Torriani, who ran the race for La Gazzetta dello Sport, added the Muro di Sormano. It is a narrow road above the village of Sormano, 1.9 kilometers long at an average of 15 percent, with a straight ramp close to 25 percent. The Muro was used from 1960 to 1962 and then dropped as too steep.
In 1961 the race finished in Como for the first time, and Vito Taccone won. With the line beside the lake, the climbs now came close to the finish. A rider could attack on the last one and hold the gap to the line, and Lombardia began to favor climbers who could do that.
The organizer calls the years from 1961 to 1994 the era of the Autumn World Championship. The world championships were held in late summer then, so Lombardia was the last great one-day race of the year, and the best riders of each generation came to win it. Tom Simpson won in 1965 as world champion. Eddy Merckx won in 1971 and 1972. His 1971 victory came by 3 minutes 31 seconds over Franco Bitossi.
Felice Gimondi won in 1966 and 1973, Francesco Moser in 1975 and 1978, and Bernard Hinault in 1979 and 1984. Sean Kelly won in 1983, 1985 and 1991, eight years between his first win and his last. The nickname faded when the UCI rebuilt the calendar, with the Vuelta a España moved to September and the world championships to October.
In the 1990s the finish moved to Monza and then to Bergamo. From 2004 to 2010 it returned to the lakefront in Como, after the Civiglio and a last short climb at San Fermo della Battaglia above the town.
Paolo Bettini won on that finish in 2005 and 2006. The 2006 race was the 100th edition, and he started it as world champion, ten days after his brother Sauro died in a car crash. He attacked on the Civiglio, was caught by Fabian Wegmann before San Fermo, dropped him on that last climb and descended alone to the Como waterfront. “This is my biggest and most beautiful victory. Never again will I ride alone, I know,” he said, as quoted by the organizer.
From 2011 to 2013 the race finished in Lecco. In 2012 the Muro di Sormano came back after 50 years. The road is now a cycle path painted with altitude markers, tree names and the climbing times from 1962.
Since 2014 the finish has moved between Como and Bergamo, and the direction of the route changes with it. Vincenzo Nibali won in 2015 and 2017 and is still the last Italian winner. Esteban Chaves won in 2016, the first rider from outside Europe to take the race. In 2020 the pandemic moved the race to August 15. Jakob Fuglsang won, and Remco Evenepoel crashed over a low bridge wall on the descent of the Sormano and fractured his pelvis.
Pogačar won five in a row from 2021 to 2025. That broke Coppi’s record of four straight wins from 1946 to 1949 and brought him level with Coppi’s total of five. In 2025 he attacked on the Passo di Ganda and rode the final 36 kilometers alone to Bergamo, where Evenepoel finished second, 1 minute 48 seconds behind. Five starts had brought five victories.
Also known as: Giro di Lombardia · Tour of Lombardy · The Race of the Falling Leaves
First held on November 12, 1905, starting and finishing in Milan, and missed only in 1943 and 1944. Fausto Coppi and Tadej Pogačar share the record of five wins, and Alfredo Binda won four times.
In 2025 Tadej Pogačar attacked on the Passo di Ganda and rode the final 36 kilometers alone to Bergamo, his fifth win in a row. The 2026 route: 4,600 meters of climbing, with the Civiglio and two ascents of San Fermo della Battaglia in the last 30 kilometers. At the top of the Madonna del Ghisallo the race passes the chapel of the patron saint of cyclists.
2027 edition
Oct 9, 2027.
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 🇫🇷Paul Seixas |
| 2025 | 🇸🇮Tadej Pogačar |
| 2024 | 🇸🇮Tadej Pogačar |
| 2023 | 🇸🇮Tadej Pogačar |
| 2022 | 🇸🇮Tadej Pogačar |
| 2021 | 🇸🇮Tadej Pogačar |
| 2020 | 🇩🇰Jakob Fuglsang |
| 2019 | 🇳🇱Bauke Mollema |
| 2018 | 🇫🇷Thibaut Pinot |
| 2017 | 🇮🇹Vincenzo Nibali |
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 🇨🇴Esteban Chaves |
Tadej Pogačar attacked on the Passo di Ganda and rode the final 36 kilometers alone to Bergamo. It was his fifth win in a row, which matched Fausto Coppi's total of five.
The pandemic moved the race to August 15. Jakob Fuglsang won, and Remco Evenepoel crashed over a low bridge wall on the descent of the Sormano and fractured his pelvis.
Esteban Chaves won, the first rider from outside Europe to take the race.
Paolo Bettini started as world champion, ten days after his brother Sauro died in a car crash. He attacked on the Civiglio, dropped Fabian Wegmann on San Fermo and descended alone to the Como waterfront.
Vincenzo Torriani, who ran the race, added the Muro di Sormano, 1.9 kilometers at an average of 15 percent. It was dropped after 1962 as too steep and came back in 2012.
Fausto Coppi attacked on the Madonna del Ghisallo, was caught on the descent, then broke clear on Milan's Ghisolfa flyover and soloed into the Vigorelli velodrome, the first of his four consecutive wins.
On the route in almost every edition since 1919. The classic ascent from Bellagio is 8.6 kilometers at 6.2 percent.
Since 2014 the finish has moved between the two towns, and the direction of the route changes with it. The 2025 race from Como to Bergamo measured 241 kilometers, and the 2026 route from Bergamo to Como 239.
On the 2026 route the Civiglio, 4.2 kilometers at 9.7 percent, sits between two ascents of San Fermo della Battaglia, 2.7 kilometers at 7.2 percent, all in the last 30 kilometers.
In 2006 Paolo Bettini dropped Fabian Wegmann on San Fermo and descended alone to the Como waterfront. In 2025 Tadej Pogačar attacked on the Passo di Ganda and rode the final 36 kilometers alone to Bergamo.
The route changes every year. Since 2014 the finish has moved between Como and Bergamo, and the direction of the race changes with it. The Madonna del Ghisallo has been on the route in almost every edition since 1919; other climbs come and go, among them the Muro di Sormano, the Civiglio and San Fermo della Battaglia above Como, and Selvino and the Passo di Ganda on the Bergamo side. The Ghisallo and Selvino are more than eight kilometers long, and the steepest climbs have ramps of 14 percent or more. The finish is in town after a descent, so a rider who goes clear on the last climb still has to hold the gap on the way down.
8.6 kilometers at 6.2 percent from Bellagio, and on the route in almost every edition since 1919. At the top stands the chapel of the Madonna del Ghisallo, whom Pope Pius XII declared patron saint of cyclists in 1949, with a cycling museum beside it.
A narrow road above the village of Sormano: 1.9 kilometers at an average of 15 percent, with a ramp close to 25 percent. It was used from 1960 to 1962 and brought back in 2012.
About 4.2 kilometers at 9.7 percent above Como, with sections of 14 percent. Paolo Bettini attacked on it in 2006, in the 100th edition, and went on to win alone.
2.7 kilometers at 7.2 percent, almost always the final climb before the descent into Como. It is on the 2026 route twice.
A climb on the Bergamo side of the race. In 2025 Tadej Pogačar attacked on it and rode the final 36 kilometers to Bergamo alone, finishing 1 minute 48 seconds ahead of Remco Evenepoel.
Five wins (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1954), the first four in a row. In 1948 he went clear 83 kilometers from the finish and set a record of 25 minutes 20 seconds on the Ghisallo.
Five wins in a row, from 2021 to 2025, in his first five starts. That broke Coppi's record of four straight wins and matched his total of five.
Four wins (1925, 1926, 1927, 1931). He led over the top of the Ghisallo every year from 1924 through 1927.
Three wins and nine podium finishes, which is still the record.
Three wins (1983, 1985, 1991), eight years between the first and the last.
Two wins (2015, 2017), and still the last Italian winner.
