Last year’s runner-up Michele Scarponi has been forced to cancel his planned participation in this year’s Giro di Lombardia due to illness; consequently, the Lampre-ISD team will throw its full weight behind triple winner Damiano Cunego, rather than having two cards to play.
Scarponi’s squad has explained his absence as being down to ‘an acute pharynx-tonsillitis’ which it states requires him to take an antibiotic. He hasn’t shown much sharpness recently, with his second place overall in the Giro d’Italia and very strong early season being counter-balanced by fatigue in the second half of the year. He withdrew ill from the Vuelta a España after riding well early on, and was back in 25th place in the Memorial Marco Pantani.
Cunego hasn’t set the world on fire since finishing seventh in the Tour de France, but rode the Tour of Beijing to try to improve his condition for the big Classic. He was 44th overall there and seventh in the mountains classification; after having a little time to recover, he’s hoping to click tomorrow.
“I've already covered the course of the race,” he said, indicating that he had checked out the modified course. “I can affirm that it's demanding, there's no place to rest. Personally, I improved my fitness in China. I will rely on top team mates so I'll approach the race with optimism.”
The punchy Italian climber knows that if he is on a good day, he is one of the riders who could thrive on the tough Lombardia course. He will be backed by Leonardo Bertagnolli, Francesco Gavazzi, Marco Marzano, Manuele Mori, Przemyslaw Niemiec, Daniele Pietropolli and Diego Ulissi, while Orlando Maini will direct from the team car.