The China Mail - Lombardia promises gripping end to season in Pogacar absence

With the injured Pogacar missing, the field will be wide-open, giving hope to any number of riders that they could write their name in Monument history.

The 27-year-old Slovenian has been the dominant rider in cycling for the last half dozen years, and nowhere has that been starker than at the Classic of the Falling Leaves.

He won the autumn Monument in each of the last five years -- the only man to have won a single Monument that many times consecutively.

And while his first two victories came in two-up sprint finishes -- beating Fausto Masnada in 2021 and Enric Mas in the following year -- since then he has attacked from far out and ridden off into the distance with minimal fuss.

But without him, his bridesmaid in the last two editions, newly-crowned European champion Remco Evenepoel is possibly a narrow favourite, although he has proved just a notch under the best climbers over the last month.

Instead, it is Pogacar's team-mates at UAE Emirates-XRG who pose the biggest collective threat.

Brandon McNulty is fresh from the greatest result of his career when he shocked the bigger names to win the World Championships two weeks ago.

Isaac Del Toro has shown his strength in winning the Montreal GP and finishing a strong fifth at the worlds in the same city.

In Adam Yates, Jan Christen, Felix Grossschartner and Pavel Sivakov, they have some impressive support riders.

"We go into Lombardia as defending champions and we'll have a clear goal to keep that title. The team is very strong and we have many options for victory," said Del Toro on the UAE team's website.

"Obviously Brandon is flying in the rainbows at the moment and personally I'm in good form also. The key will be to have numbers as deep into the race as possible and then play our cards on the road."

- Evenepoel struggles -

Evenepoel, who retained his world time-trial title three weeks ago, has had perhaps the best season of his career.

A second place at the Tour de France behind Pogacar and victories at Amstel Gold, Clasica San Sebastian, Quebec and the Europeans show that his form and climbing legs have been good all year long.

But in the 273km worlds road race and at the 214km Montreal GP, Evenepoel simply did not have the legs to follow the likes of Del Toro, McNulty, Frenchman Paul Seixas, Briton Tom Pidcock or even American Quinn Simmons and Italian Giulio Ciccone on the climbs deep into those races.

Evenepoel also has dark memories from Lombardia, overcooking a bend on the descent of the Muro di Sormano hill in 2020 and plunging 10 metres into a ravine, breaking his pelvis.

The hilly Lombardia course is 239km long with eight main climbs -- the steepest with a 9.7 percent average gradient, and the longest at just over 10km -- with 4,600-metres of elevation gain.

Vuelta a Espana winner Mas, Ireland's Ben Healy, Giro dell'Emilia winner Davide Piganzoli, American Matteo Jorgensen, Dane Anthon Charmig, Italian Christian Scaroni, European time-trial champion Primoz Roglic -- the list of potential challengers to Evenepoel showing impressive late-season form simply goes on and on.

The racing since Pogacar broke his collarbone at the Vuelta has been thrilling and unpredictable.

Lombardia promises no less.

T.Luo--ThChM