Irish professionals Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche suffered disappointment last Sunday when they crashed out of the World Road Race Championships but both will aim to bounce back in two day's time when they line out in the Il Lombardia Classic.

Previously known as the Tour of Lombardy, the race is one of the most prestigious on the calendar and will see many of the world's best riders go head to head in search of victory.

Both Martin and Roche are in good form and were relatively uninjured when they fell in torrential conditions in Florence. The issue for both was the delays they suffered after hitting the deck; the loss of time made it impossible for them to get back up to the main bunch at what was a crucial point in the race.

Martin won a stage in the Tour de France earlier this year and also took the Volta a Catalunya plus the Liège ge-Bastogne-Liège Classic. He crashed out of the Vuelta a España and wants to turn things around with a victory in his remaining races.

"There are plenty of opportunities left. I have heard horror stories of guys who have been injured in the same crash as me at the worlds, but I literally don't have any issues at all," he told The Irish Times. "Onwards and upwards, and hopefully that is the end of the bad luck.

“I have had a pretty rough run in the last couple of months.”

Eleventh in Milan-Turin on Wednesday, he will ride Lombardia on Sunday, then head to the Tour of Beijing next week. After that he will do the Japan Cup, a race he won before.

“I need to try to finish the season on a high as the last few months have been hard. There’s three weeks until the end of the season and I’ll race hard until then,” sad Martin.

Roche will end his season on Sunday. “I was hoping to finish my last two races with a good performance so now, after crashing out of the worlds, I just have to focus on Lombardia and to try to do something there,” he said.