Since its creation, the Giro di Lombardia has been the classic with the fewest interruptions in cycling; only the editions of 1943 and 1944 were cancelled for reasons of war.

Morgagni wanted to give Milanese rider Pierino Albini the opportunity to take revenge for his defeat against Giovanni Cuniolo in the short-lived Italian King's Cup.

The race attracted vast crowds along the course and ended in Milan with the victory of Giovanni Gerbi, at the time one of the stars of cycling.

From the 1930s to the 1950s, Alfredo Binda, Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, icons of Italian cycling, were the main protagonists and immortalized the race with their exploits.

Italian rider Fiorenzo Magni had missed the break, and as he fell further behind, a car passed him with Giulia Occhini, Coppi's infamous mistress, sitting in the back.

Despite an occasional return to finishing in Milan, the race had developed a new personality, defined by a series of arduous climbs amid a mountainous scenery.

Frenchman Henri Pelissier and Ireland's Sean Kelly were the only non-Italian riders to win the race three times.

Cycling legend Eddy Merckx won three consecutive victories from 1971 to 1973, but his last win was stripped after a positive doping test and awarded to second-place finisher Felice Gimondi.

It lost this particular role in 1995 when the UCI revolutionized the international cycling calendar and moved the World Championship from August to October, one week before the Giro di Lombardia.

From 1988 to 2004 the Tour of Lombardy was the final leg of the UCI Road World Cup and was often the decisive race in that competition.

In 1997 Michele Bartoli needed to finish ahead of Rolf Sørensen in the race to be the winner of the 1997 World Cup.

The other six are Alfredo Binda, Tom Simpson, Eddy Merckx, Felice Gimondi, Giuseppe Saronni and Oscar Camenzind.

The Tour of Lombardy is now the classic par excellence for riders to take revenge for the world championship or to achieve an "Autumn Double win".

The climb starts near Bellagio at the shore of the Como Lake, and heads up until the church of Madonna del Ghisallo (754 m), the patroness of cyclists.

In 2004, after twenty years, the finish returned to the lakefront in Como, with the short but steep San Fermo della Battaglia climb just before the arrival.

The 2010 edition saw the re-introduction of the Muro di Sormano, a spectacular climb with a maximum gradient of 27%, which replaced the Civiglio after the Ghisallo.

The Giro di Lombardia is considered a climbers classic and one of the most arduous races of the season, because of its distance (ca.

In bad weather - common to mountainous Lombardy - the race is often a grueling contest where the strongest riders attack well ahead of the finish.

On sunny days, the leaves on the trees typically blaze a golden trail around Lombardy, and TV coverage displays extensive aerial footage of the scenery around the Como Lake.

The Italian press, never shy to introduce a poetic epithet, has also coined the phrase The Romantic Classic to denote the race.

The Trittico di Autunno (Autumn Triptych) is an unofficial trio of cycling classics held in the Lombardy and Piedmont regions of Northern Italy, in early October.

Milan-Turin is held on the Thursday after the World Championship, the Giro del Piemonte on Friday and the Tour of Lombardy is the closing race on Sunday.

Even rarer is the combination of winning all three of Italy's great cycling races, Milan–San Remo, the Tour of Lombardy and the Giro d'Italia in one year.