Il Lombardia 2026 is on Saturday, October 10: 239 kilometers from Bergamo to Como, with San Fermo della Battaglia twice and the Civiglio in the last 30. Tadej Pogačar won the last five editions and is out injured. Remco Evenepoel, second in 2025, and Isaac del Toro are the top favorites.
Il Lombardia 2026 route: Bergamo to Como over the Ghisallo
The route has 4,600 meters of climbing. The race starts in Bergamo and spends its first half in the Prealps around the city: Selvino, 10.1 kilometers at 5.9 percent, then the Colle di Berbenno and Valpiana. The Giovenzana side of the Colle Brianza, 3.6 kilometers at 9.2 percent and up to 16 percent at its steepest, comes with around 100 kilometers to go. From Bellagio the riders climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo, 8.6 kilometers at 6.2 percent with gradients of up to 14 percent.
Near Como they climb San Fermo della Battaglia, 2.7 kilometers at 7.2 percent, a first time with 27 kilometers to go, descend to the city and cross the finish line with 22 kilometers left. About a kilometer later the Civiglio begins, 4.2 kilometers at 9.7 percent, on a road that narrows at the top, which comes 16.7 kilometers from the finish. Then they go back to San Fermo, whose summit is 5.2 kilometers from the line.
Who is on the Il Lombardia 2026 start list?
The organizer’s entry list has 25 teams of seven riders. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Pogačar’s team, gives number 1 to Brandon McNulty, the world champion, with del Toro and Adam Yates beside him. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe enters Evenepoel, Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz, Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley in one team.
Pogačar himself is absent. He broke a collarbone and fractured a vertebra in a crash at the Vuelta a España, a year after winning this race alone for the fifth time.
Also entered are Paul Seixas for Decathlon CMA CGM, Tom Pidcock for Pinarello-Q36.5, Giulio Ciccone and Juan Ayuso for Lidl-Trek, Richard Carapaz and Ben Healy, Oscar Onley, Enric Mas, Matteo Jorgenson and Davide Piganzoli, Michael Storer and Marc Hirschi, and Jarno Widar. Jonas Vingegaard is not on the list. Ion Izagirre starts with a fractured wrist, in the last race of a career of 17 years.
Can Evenepoel win Il Lombardia without Pogačar there?
On October 4 in Slovenia Evenepoel won the European road race title for the first time. He crashed at the top of the climb on the second-to-last lap, was back at the front within five minutes, rode away with Ciccone and beat him in a sprint by less than the width of a tire.
He is world time trial champion for the fourth year in a row, and in the Tour de France he won stage 15 to Plateau de Solaison and the stage 16 time trial. In the Worlds road race in Montréal on September 27 he led the group of ten that began the last lap 53 seconds behind McNulty and did not catch him. A sprint from a small group in Como would suit him, as Slovenia showed. To get one he has to stay with the climbers on the Civiglio and again on San Fermo.
Is Isaac del Toro fit for Il Lombardia?
Del Toro leads UAE together with McNulty, and since he came back to Europe from the Worlds in Montréal his knee has hurt. “Battling with the jet lag and also with knee pain,” he told Cycling Pro Net before Gran Piemonte on October 8. There he attacked 18 kilometers from the finish, and on the La Morra climb only Finn Fisher-Black was still with him. The two were caught 1.5 kilometers from the line, and Dorian Godon won the sprint. On that evidence the knee is less of a worry than his words suggested.
If the knee does hold him back on Saturday, UAE still has the world champion. McNulty won his title with a solo of 33 kilometers, though at Tre Valli Varesine on October 6 he was in the group that the three leaders rode away from by half a minute.
Seixas, Pidcock, Piganzoli and Widar: who else can win?
Seixas won La Flèche Wallonne as a 19-year-old, at his first start, on the Mur de Huy. He finished fourth in his first Tour de France and lost the Grand Prix de Montréal only to del Toro, in a sprint.
Pidcock was second twice in the week before the race. At the Giro dell’Emilia on October 3 it was his third runner-up finish in a row on San Luca. At Tre Valli Varesine he went clear with Widar and Jorgenson about 15 kilometers from the finish and lost the sprint of three.
Both winners are on the Lombardia list. Piganzoli took the Giro dell’Emilia by attacking a group of five with 5 kilometers to go, his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Jorgenson among them. Widar, who is 20, won Tre Valli Varesine for his first victory as a professional.
What time does Il Lombardia 2026 start?
The riders leave the start village in Bergamo at 10:45 a.m. local time and the race begins at 11:00, which is 5:00 a.m. Eastern. The finish on the lakefront in Como is expected between 4:40 and 5:20 p.m. In the United States the race is on HBO Max, in the United Kingdom on TNT Sports, in Canada on FloBikes and in Australia on SBS. The how to watch page lists every country, and the Il Lombardia race page has the winners and the history.