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07-Oct-2021: Il Lombardia will be the last race of our team this year, and the Wolfpack will be hoping to get a good result before bringing down the curtain over a season that so far has brought 65 victories, 25 of which came at World Tour level.
Scheduled this Saturday, the Italian Monument comes with a revamped 239km route for its 115th edition, which will start from Como and end in Bergamo. The iconic Madonna del Ghisallo will be the first climb of the day, and will be followed later in the race by the Roncola, Berbenno, Dossena, Zambia Alta and Passo di Ganda for a total of 4500 vertical meters. In case a small group will enter in the final five kilometers, Colle Aperto and its vicious double-digit gradients could be used as springboard to victory by the riders still having enough left in the tank.
Runner-up here in 2017 at just his third participation, World Champion Julian Alaphilippe returns at the start of Il Lombardia for the first time in four years, and will lead a very strong Deceuninck – Quick-Step team that will also include João Almeida, former Piccolo Giro di Lombardia winner Andrea Bagioli, Dries Devenyns, Remco Evenepoel, Fausto Masnada and Pieter Serry, a top 10 finisher at the race back in 2013.
“We go into our final race of the season with a lot of motivation. The parcours is tougher than in the past and we expect a hard race, but we believe in our chances of getting a nice result. As you can see, the team is a solid one, comprising guys who racked up many good results in the past couple of weeks. We have several cards to play and we hope to be in the mix at the right moment on Saturday”, explained Deceuninck – Quick-Step sports director Davide Bramati.
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