Lombardia: The Race Of The Falling Leaves | Cycling Art Print

Taking place at the very end of the season, Lombardy is the last great race of the year. It tours the hills that surround Lake Garda, and is famed as one of the most beautiful races anywhere in the world. Memories of finishing sprints bathed in the warm light of the early evening autumn sun, and of lethal descents made treacherous by the fallen leaves of its title.

At its climax the riders race up the mythic Ghisallo climb, whose hairpins take the riders ever-upwards to one of the most revered places in cycling - the Madonna di Ghisallo. The Madonna is a small chapel at the peak of the climb whose interior is a shrine to cycling. While the racers have no time to stop and offer up a prayer, the Madonna is the end of many a cyclist's pilgrimage.