The 2023 cycling season has been exceptional. Big names have stood out in the classics like Mathieu van der Poel, winner in spring in monuments like Sanremo or Roubaix and crowning the season with the victory in the world championship. Others like Remco Evenepoel, although he has not been able to revalidate his Vuelta of 2022, has been one of the great protagonists with extraordinary attacks and epic stages.
Continuing with the grand tours, they have provided us with plenty of emotions such as Primoz Roglic's victory in-extremis in the Giro d'Italia (with a chain exit included), the unrivalled power of the Jumbo-Visma team in the Tour with Jonas Vingegaard's second victory or the recent victory of Sepp Kuss in the Vuelta, which delighted fans all over the world for managing to win a grand tour by an underdog. Jumbo has achieved something rarely seen before, winning the Giro-Tour-Vuelta triplet. In the face of these triumphs and the rumoured merger with the Soudal team.
A historic image of the Giro di Lombardia. Fausto Coppi and Renzo Soldani passing under a level crossing. Valentino Petrelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Now the season is almost over, but not quite. Il Lombardia is the last monument of the year, with its 238km of climbs and descents ripe for attacks and counterattacks between the titans of the peloton, the favourites for the win being Slovenian duo Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic, who have been unbeatable all year. Pogacar, two-time winner of the Tour de France and the Tour of Flanders, is looking for his third consecutive Lombardia, something only within reach of legends like Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali. Roglic, on the other hand, recently won the Giro dell'Emilia with one of his unbeatable sprints and wants to add to his palmares his second monument after Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2020. Evenepoel and Spaniard Enric Más are not to be missed either. The excitement is at its peak in the classic of the dead leaves, the race that brings the Italian cycling autumn to a close.
But there is still more, the last race we report on in Cyclingoo is the Paris-Tours, a beautiful race whose 213km edition of 2023 runs along dirt roads between vineyards and which counts among its great favourites the Jumbo-Visma rider (of course) Christophe Laporte, although other great sprinters like De Lie, Demare or Groves will not make it easy for him.
This concludes our coverage of the 2023 season, we hope to see you in 2024. Thank you!