Summary
- The 120th Il Lombardia runs on Saturday 10 October 2026, from Bergamo to Como. RCS Sport presented the route on 24 September at Palazzo Lombardia in Milan.
- Press reports of the presentation give 239 km and 4,600 m of climbing across nine ascents. That is more climbing than the 4,400 m of the 2025 route.
- The finale is the Como one. San Fermo della Battaglia is climbed twice around a 22 km finishing circuit, with Civiglio between the two passes.
- Tadej Pogačar will not start. He crashed on stage 8 of the Vuelta a España and his team ended his season.
- Pogačar won the five editions from 2021 to 2025. Remco Evenepoel was second in both 2024 and 2025, at 3'16" and then 1'48", and is the reference point in an open race.
The route, as presented on 24 September
RCS Sport presented the 120th edition at Palazzo Lombardia in Milan on the morning of 24 September, with Paolo Bellino, chief executive of RCS Sports & Events, and Regione Lombardia president Attilio Fontana.
The race runs from Bergamo to Como, reversing the 2025 direction. Esciclismo reported 239 km on the day of the presentation, and both Esciclismo and Terzo Tempo Sport Magazine give 4,600 m of climbing over nine ascents. Note where those numbers come from: the official route page publishes neither a total distance nor a total elevation, so both are press figures rather than an RCS Sport table.
The finish is on the Lungolario Trento in Como. The official route page describes a 22 km finishing circuit, a finishing straight 7 m wide and a final bend 600 m from the line.
Two changes are worth naming. The Colma di Sormano, which decided the 2024 Como edition, is not on the 2026 route. Civiglio is back, after being cut from that same 2024 edition when floods and landslides forced a late reroute.
The climbs that decide it
Nine climbs, in the order the race meets them. RCS publishes gradients only for the Como finale. The lengths of Civiglio and San Fermo are long established and come from press reports, not from the organiser.
| Climb | Where it comes | Summit | Length and gradient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colle dei Pasta, over Bocche di Gavarno | out of Bergamo, through Val Seriana | not published | not published |
| Selvino | first block, Bergamo Prealps | not published | not published |
| Colle di Berbenno | first block, Bergamo Prealps | not published | not published |
| Valpiana, from Roncola | first block, Bergamo Prealps | not published | not published |
| Colle Brianza, Giovenzana side | Brianza, before the drop to Lecco | not published | not published |
| Madonna del Ghisallo, from Bellagio | after the eastern shore of Lake Como | not published | ramps to 14% |
| San Fermo della Battaglia, first pass | approach to Como | 397 m | 2.7 km at 7.2%, 10% maximum |
| Civiglio | inside the 22 km finishing circuit | 614 m | 4.2 km at 9.7%, around 10% throughout |
| San Fermo della Battaglia, second pass | last climb, summit about 5 km out | 397 m | 2.7 km at 7.2%, 10% maximum |
Sources: the official Il Lombardia route page for the finale, the RCS release of 24 September 2026 for distance and elevation, and Cyclingnews of 24 September 2026 plus the Gran Fondo Il Lombardia climb pages for the Civiglio and San Fermo figures. Cover photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
RCS describes the last 10 km in unusual detail. The race crosses Como on wide avenues to the railway underpass where the final San Fermo starts, on a narrow road with a broken surface. The descent is wide and well surfaced, through two lit tunnels and two large roundabouts, and it ends inside the final kilometre. The last left-hand bend comes at 600 m, and the finishing straight is 7 m wide.
The shape is familiar even if the detail is new. Four climbs in the first block soften the legs. The Ghisallo sits in the middle as the one everybody knows and the one that decides least. The race is then settled on Civiglio and the second San Fermo. On the way there the route runs down the eastern shore of Lake Como to Lecco and back up to Bellagio. Bikeroom is based in Lecco, so that stretch is our commute rather than a postcard.
Civiglio is the launchpad, San Fermo the filter. A rider alone at the top of San Fermo has a technical descent and a short flat run to hold, which is how most Como editions have finished.
Who wins without Pogačar
Pogačar crashed with about 32 km to go on stage 8 of this year's Vuelta a España. Cyclingnews reported a concussion, a stable fracture of the C7 vertebra and an open fracture of the collarbone. UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed he would not race again in 2026. Team doctor Adrian Rotunno said there was no benefit in accelerating recovery to meet a racing deadline.
No startlist had been published when the route was presented, so the names below are form, not entries.
- Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe). Second in 2024 and 2025, and the only rider who has been close. He won GP Québec on 11 September and a fourth straight world time trial title on 20 September.
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). Won GP Montréal on 13 September and was fifth at Lombardia in 2025. He was third overall at the Tour de France this year.
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM). Seventh in 2025 at 19, second at GP Montréal and third in the Montréal time trial.
- Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5). Sixth in 2025 and mountain bike world champion this season. Cycling Up To Date called him one of the main instigators of the action at GP Montréal.
- Michael Storer and Quinn Simmons. Third and fourth in 2025, at 3'14" and 3'39". Both go well on long, cold, attritional days.
- Giulio Ciccone, third in 2024 and second to Evenepoel at GP Québec, and Egan Bernal, eighth in 2025.
Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso appear in most preview lists. We found no verified 2026 autumn result for either, so we are leaving them as open questions.
The calendar between now and Bergamo is busy. The elite men's road race in Montréal is on 27 September. Then comes the Italian autumn block: Giro dell'Emilia on 3 October, Coppa Bernocchi on 5 October, Tre Valli Varesine on 6 October and Gran Piemonte on 8 October, per the 2026 UCI ProSeries calendar. Form in that week is usually a better guide than anything from August.
What a 239 km hilly Monument asks of a bike
Lombardia is long, cold and almost never flat, and it still finishes with a bunch of riders who have spent five hours sheltering in a peloton. That is the tension. Weight matters on Civiglio. Drag matters for the other 200 km.
| Model | Published figure | What it is | Collection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colnago V5Rs | 685 g unpainted frame, 1,027 g with fork and seatpost, frontal area down 13% against the V4Rs | climbing flagship with aero profiles from the Y1Rs project | Colnago V5Rs |
| Bianchi Specialissima RC | 750 g frame in size 55 | the lightest of the four, built around weight first | Bianchi Specialissima |
| Pinarello Dogma F | 208 W drag in TOUR's April 2024 test, the lowest of the four, 7.03 kg as tested | aero all-rounder, the WorldTour default for hilly classics | Pinarello Dogma |
| Wilier Filante SLR | 6.85 kg as tested by TOUR | aero frame that stays close to a climbing bike on the scales | Wilier Filante |
All frame weights are manufacturer claims. The TOUR figures are measured, but they belong to the 2024 test bikes, and the Colnago in that test was the V4Rs rather than the V5Rs.
The pattern of the last five years is clear enough. Every winning Lombardia bike has been an all-round race frame, not a dedicated climbing frame. Our piece on the Colnago V5Rs explains where the light platform still earns its place. And because the UCI floor is 6.8 kg, a frame under 700 g mostly buys freedom elsewhere in the build: see our explainer on the weight limit.
What it means for a buyer
If your riding looks like Lombardia, meaning long days with 3,000 m or more and descents that matter, an aero all-rounder is the safer single bike. If you race short, steep, low-speed hill climbs, the weight-first frames make more sense, and that is the narrower case. The previous generation of both types lands in pre-owned road bikes about two seasons after the pros move on, which is where most of the value sits.
We will cover the result and the podium bikes after 10 October, once the startlist is real rather than inferred.
If you are weighing a climbing frame against an aero frame for the routes you actually ride, talk to our concierge.
Sources: Il Lombardia, official route page; Il Lombardia official news centre, 24 September 2026; RCS Sport, the route for the 120th edition unveiled, 24 September 2026; Esciclismo, 239 km and nine climbs, 24 September 2026; Terzo Tempo Sport Magazine, 24 September 2026; Cyclingnews, Pogačar's season over; Velo, Pogačar's 2026 season ends; Wikipedia, 2025 Il Lombardia; Wikipedia, 2024 Il Lombardia; Cyclingnews, Il Lombardia 2024 route; Cycling Up To Date, Worlds contenders; Bikerumor, Colnago V5Rs; Cycling Weekly, Colnago V5Rs; TOUR magazine, Italian race bikes tested, 5 April 2024; Bianchi, Specialissima RC.
