Inaugural Women’s WorldTour launches Saturday with Strade Bianche
The women’s and men’s Strade Bianche races–quickly becoming semi-Classics in the calendar–roll in Italy on Saturday, with the women’s 121-km contest opening the first Women’s WorldTour campaign. It’s the second edition of the women’s Strade and 10th anniversary of the men’s race.
The WorldTour replaces the World Cup, which Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain/Boels-Dolmans) won in 2015, and offers a calendar of 35 racing days instead of 10. The concluding race is La Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta on September 11, a version of the successful La Course by Le Tour de France, this year on July 24.
Both races rumble over the race’s famed “white gravel”, with the women’s edition including 22.4-km of sterrati, and they both start and finish in Siena.
The profile of the women’s race reveals the relentless ripples.
in this 10th edition for the first time both departure and finish line are in Siena #stradebianche pic.twitter.com/4DaiuDdM04
— Strade Bianche (@StradeBianche) November 11, 2015
Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5), third last year, hopes to take the flowers in her home country. Boels-Dolmans will be sending 2015 champion Megan Gaurnier (USA) and world champion Lizzie Armitstead, who prevailed in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday. Expect a strong showing from Anna van der Breggen (The Netherlands/Rabobank-Liv) and Gracie Elvin (Australia/Orica-AIS).
The Canadian contingent starts with Liv-Plantur’s Leah Kirchmann, who had a fine weekend in Belgium. Lex Albrecht lines up for Bepink, while Joëlle Numainville and Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin are in the Cervélo-Bigla lineup.
The men’s 1-HC-rated race has 56-km of white gravel over 171-km and assails the Monte Sante Marie climb, a key point of the race with about 50-km remaining. Last year, Czech Zdenek Stybar outkicked Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) and distant third Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) on the uphill finish to mitigate Etixx-QuickStep’s spring campaign frustration. All three men are back, Van Avermaet still buzzing from his Omloop win.
They’ll have competition in two-time champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland/Trek-Segafredo) and his Belgian teammate Jasper Stuyven, who took the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne title Sunday. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) showed his form by winning the Tour of Oman. World champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Tinkoff) is always in the mix.
Canadians ready for the gravel are Hugo Houle (AG2R) and Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge).
