The peloton's finest climbers will look to end their seasons on a high on Sunday at the prestigious one-day race Il Lombardia in Italy.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
The Spaniard is another rider who should relish Il Lombardia's difficult climbs and, having claimed bronze at the world championships last week, he too looks to be in condition to challenge for victory in Lecco. He is also one of the fastest sprinters among the climbing fraternity, so could be the favourite should it come down to a shootout between a handful of climbers on the flat finish.
Peter Sagan (Cannondale)
The best prospect of the non-climbers, Sagan is impossible to write out of the equation, particularly given that the race has a flat finish. He has finished second at two of the season's four Monuments so far (Milan-San Remo and Tour of Flanders) and will no doubt be determined to make it third time lucky.
Philippe Gilbert (BMC)
The Belgian has an affinity with Lombardia having won it in 2009 and 2010, and appears to have the late-season form to make the hat-trick a distinct possibility. He is currently looking stronger than at any other point of the season and was in the picture at the worlds right up until the final lap.
Teams and riders
Ag2r-La Mondiale: Romain Bardet (Fra), Carlos Betancur (Col), Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra), Mikael Cherel (Fra), Blel Kadri (Fra), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita).
Androni-Venezuela: Riccardo Chiarini (Ita), Patrick Facchini (Ita), Fabio Felline (Ita), Marco Frapporti (Ita), Franco Pellizotti (Ita), Diego Rosa (Ita), Matteo Di Serafino (Ita), Emanuele Sella (Ita).
Argos-Shimano: Warren Barguil (Fra), Thomas Damseau (Fra), Tom Dumoulin (Ned), Johannes Frohlinger (Ger), Francois Parisien (Can), Tom Peterson (USA), Georg Preidler (Aut).
Astana: Valerio Agnoli (Ita), Fabio Aru (Ita), Enrico Gasparotto (Ita), Francesco Gavazzi (Ita), Vincenzo Nibali (Ita), Simone Ponzi (Ita), Paolo Tiralongo (Ita), Alessandro Vanotti (Ita).
Belkin: Stef Clement (Ned), Laurens ten Dam (Ned), Robert Gesink (Ned), Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned), Bram Tankink (Ned), David Tanner (Aus).
BMC: Ivan Santaromita (Ita), Marcus Bughardt (Ger), Mathias Frank (Swi), Philipee Gilbert (Bel), Marco Pinotti (Ita), Manuel Quinziato (Ita), Greg van Avermaet (Bel), Tejay van Garderen (USA).
Cannondale: Ivan Basso (Ita), Damiano Caruso (Ita), Alessandro De Marchi (Ita), Paolo Longo (Ita), Daniele Ratto (Ita), Maciej Paterski (Pol), Peter Sagan (Svk), Cameron Wurf (Aus).
Colombia: Darwin Atapuma (Col), Robinson Chalapud (Col), Fabio Duarte (Col), Leonardo Duque (Col), Jarlinson Pantano (Col), Carlos Quintero (Col), Jeffry Romero (Col), Juan Valencia (Col).
Europcar: Natnael Berhane (Eri), Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra), Cyril Gautier (Fra), Vincent Jerome (Fra), Davide Malacarne (Ita), Bjorn Thurau (Ger), Angelo Tulik (Fra), Thomas Voeckler (Fra).
Euskaltel-Euskadi: Mikel Astarloza (Spa), Garikoitz Bravo (Spa), Ion Izagirre (Spa), Mikel Landa (Spa), Egoi Martinez (Spa), Juan Jose Oroz (Spa), Gorka Verdugo (Spa).
FDJ: Thibaut Pinot (Fra), Arnaud Courteille (Fra), Murilo Fischer (Bra), Alexandre Geniez (Fra), Jeremy Roy (Fra), Anthony Rouz (Fra), Jussi Veikkanen (Fin), Arthur Vichot (Fra).
Garmin-Sharp: Caleb Fairly (USA), Nathan Haas (Aus), Alex Howes (USA), Michel Kreder (Ned), Dan Martin (Ire), Lachlan Morton (Aus), Fabian Wegmann (Ger), David Zabriskie (USA).
Katusha: Giampaolo Caruso (Ita), Sergei Chernetski (Rus), Vladimir Gusev (Rus), Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus), Daniel Moreno (Spa), Luca Paolini (Ita), Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa), Angel Vicioso (Spa).
Lotto-Belisol: Dirk Bellemakers (Ned), Gaeten Bille (Bel), Brian Bulgac (Ned), Bart de Clerq (Bel), Francis de Greef (Bel), Gert Dockx (Bel), Jurgen van de Walle (Bel), Jelle Vanendert (Bel).
Movistar: Rui Costa (Por), Andrey Amador (Cos), Eros Capecchi (Ita), Jesus Herrada (Spa), Benat Intxausti (Spa), Nairo Quintana (Col), Alejandro Valverde (Spa), Giovanni Visconti (Ita).
MTN-Qhubeka: Tsgabu Gebrenaryam Grmay (Eth), Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA), Songezo Jim (RSA), Ignatas Konovalovas (Lit), Louis Meintjes (RSA), Sergio Pardilla (Spa), Meron Russom (eri), Jay Robert Thomson (RSA).
NetApp-Endura: Cesare Benedetti (Ita), Bartosz Huzarksi (Pol), Jose Mendes (Por), Erick Rowsell (GB), Andreas Schillinger (Ger), Paul Voss (Ger), Alexander Wetterhall (Swe).
Omega Pharma - Quick-Step: Gianluca Brambilla (Ita), Sylvain Chavanel (Fra), Dries Devenyns (Bel), Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol), Serge Pauwels (Bel), Pieter Serry (Bel), Peter Velits (Svk).
Orica-GreenEDGE: Michael Albasini (Swi), Simon Clarke (Aus), Luke Durbridge (Aus), Michael Matthews (Aus), Christian Meier (Can), Cameron Meyer (Aus), Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eri), Pieter Weening (Ned).
RadioShack-Leopard: Andy Schleck (Lux), Jan Bakelants (Bel), George Bennett (NZ), Matthew Busche (USA), Ben Hermans (Bel), Maxime Monfort (Bel), Nelson Oliveira (Por), Haimar Zubeldia (Spa).
Saxo-Tinkoff: Alberto Contador (Spa), Rafal Majka (Pol), Sergio Paulinho (Por), Nicolas Roche (Ire), Michael Rogers (Aus), Rory Sutherland (Aus), Chris Anker Sorensen (Den), Oliver Zaugg (Swi).
Team Sky: Dario Cataldo (Ita), Chris Froome (GB), Sergio Henao (Col), Christian Knees (Ger), Salvatore Puccio (Ita), Rigoberto Uran (Col), Xabier Zandio (Spa).
Vacansoleil-DCM: Thomas de Gendt (Bel), Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa), Sergey Lagutin (Uzb), Maurits Lammertink (Ned), Marco Marcato (Ita), Rob Ruijgh (Ned), Mirko Selvaggi (Ita), Willem Wauters (Bel).
