Mikel Landa abandons Il Lombardia 2019

Mikel Landa has abandoned Il Lombardia in what was his last race for Movistar.

The Spaniard climbed off with 62km remaining as he began the climb to Muro di Sormano, with Bob Jungels (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) simultaneously launching an attack to bridge the gap to team-mate Remi Cavagna, Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec) and Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) up the road.

Movistar still have Alejandro Valverde as a hopeful for the win, who will face stiff competition from Egan Bernal (Ineos) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) as the racing intensifies as the peloton approach Como.

At the time of writing the reason behind Landa's abandonment had not yet been announced by Movistar.

The 29-year-old has started all four previous Italian one-day races this past week, the Giro dell'Emilia, the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli, Milano-Torino and Gran Piemonte, but has not finished any of them.

Mikel Landa will move to Bahrain-Merida in 2020 after two years with the Spanish team, rejoining Rod Ellingworth who he worked with previously during his time at Team Sky.