PERFECT STORM

Monument! San Siro! Gran Fondo! Cycling Plus joins Pogačar, Nibali and a cast of thousands on a sporting weekend like no other in Northern Italy

- Matt Baird

Get out of the gas station and make your way to the race start or you'll be disqualified!" As stirring pre-event calls to action go, it'll hardly give Michael Sheen sleepless nights, but the race compere has done her job and scores of cyclists are now careering towards the starting pens of the Gran Fondo II Lombardia.

The pro racers were given glorious sunshine at the 116th edition of Il Lombardia the day before, the final monument of the 2022 season and a race alternatively titled the "Classic of the Falling Leaves'. The weather gods have turned vengeful for the corresponding amateur event some 14 hours later, however. What starts with an isolated aquatic drop becomes a light coating of the sunglasses before it intensifies to biblical proportions to recall the Helm's Deep showdown in Lord of the Rings. Only with Orcs replaced by Italian cyclists with pointy elbows, who jostle their way to the pole positions in the infamous starting pens in Cantu, just south of Lake Como in Italy's northern reaches. 

Billy Idol's soft rock gem 'Rebel Yell' blasts from the Tannoy as the starter's horn blares at 7:30 am. The peloton flies out of the blocks. It's my first continental gran fondo and they're already more competitive and frenetic than UK sportives, with riders racing for positions and times. What also becomes clear is that I've under-dressed for the occasion, picking just a gilet and short-sleeve bibs/jersey combo, whereas the rest of the field looks like a fashion show for Castelli's 2023 waterproof collection. There's even a guy in a full hazmat suit, a visual reminder of coronavirus, of which nearby Bergamo was Europe's ground zero.

Ticket to paradise