On Sunday, Team NetApp-Endura will be at the start line of the final monument of the season, Il Lombardia. The team will focus on an aggressive riding style by climbers Bartosz Huzarski, Tiago Machado and Leopold König.

For the first time in its existence the Team NetApp – Endura has succeeded in receiving wild cards in the current season for all five “monuments of cycling sport”. After taking part in Milano-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, the Flanders Tour and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, next Sunday the last of these great classics Il Lombardia will be part of the racing program for the first class German cycling team. The start of the 108th “Race of the falling leaves” will be in Como. The racers will reach the finish line after 254 selective kilometers in Bergamo.

“Our plan is to liven up the race with an attractive riding style. We have two racers at once in the team with Tiago and Bartosz who have put in a very strong performance in the last few weeks and Leo is also a good option on this tough course, although he’s not really a one-day rider. Of course it would be a dream to finish such a great season with a top result, but in the case of the Lombardy tour everything really has to work out,” said Christian Pömer, the Sport Director of Team NetApp – Endura in expectation of a tough race.

There will be several important changes for the riders in this year’s 108th race of the falling leaves. For example, the start will be in Como and this time the famous ascent to Madonna del Ghisallo will not usher in the finale, but will already be on the program after 58 racing kilometers. There will also be several new features in the race-deciding phase. The highest point is the 1060-meter-high Passo di Ganda 64.7 km before the finish, the last longer ascent ends 26.1 km before the finish in Berbenno. But in Bergamo itself the task will then be to overcome a 7.9 % steep ramp a full kilometer long before the race finishes after a descent about 3.5 km long to the Piazza Matteotti in Bergamo.

Line-up:

Cesare Benedetti, David de la Cruz, Bartosz Huzarski, Leo König, Tiago Machado, Ralf Matzka, Jose Mendes, Paul Voss