Judging from the line-ups announced by the teams, Movistar will field arguably the most competitive squad in the Il Lombardia today with newly crowned world champion Rui Costa leading a pack which also includes bronze medallist Alejandro Valverde, Colombian climbing sensation Nairo Quintana and Italy's Giovanni Visconti. Thus Movistar is spearheaded by a quartet on form and more than capable of winning the last Monument of the season.

Like many of their opponents, the Movistar riders spent Friday doing a recon of the last 90 kilometres of the parcours, testing the murderously steep Muro di Sormano and the final climb to Villa Vergano, which, in all likelihood, will prove decisive in the new race route.

Rui Costa gave a powerful and intelligent display of his abilities in Florence a week ago and will be hoping for a repeat performance in the last Classic of the season.

"I can't wait to race in the rainbow jersey," Costa said when speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport after picking up his new Movistar rainbow jersey. "It's clear that the race will be decided on the Villa Vergano climb and we've got to have a numerical superiority."

Having four potential winners in their midst evidently gives Movistar the luxury of being able to decide upon a plan of action as the race evolves and weather conditions play their part.

If an elite group forms as the riders crest the Madonna del Ghisallo climb, as expected, Movistar will be hoping that the aforementioned quartet will all be present in such a group. One possible ploy could be for Quintana to launch an attack n order to force others to chase him down and thus leave the door open for the rainbow jersey to counter-attack. Another could be to keep the group together until the final climb and rely on the strong finishing abilities of both Visconti and Valverde. Either way, Movistar will fancy their chances of success.

Movistar line-up for Il Lombardia:

Andrey Amador, Eros Capecchi, Rui Costa, Jesús Herrada, Beñat Intxausti, Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde and Giovanni Visconti