Tuscany’s white gravel awaits the WorldTeams this weekend at Strade Bianche
Can Tadej Pogačar take a hat trick of wins on Saturday?
Now that March is here, the races come thick and fast, with eight WorldTour rounds and five Women’s WorldTour rounds scheduled from March 8 to 30, starting with the Strade Bianche races on Saturday. The Race of the White Roads in Tuscany, Italy, has become a beloved early season competition that is both unique and arduous.
Last Year’s Results and This Year’s Lineups
Last March Tadej Pogačar claimed his second Strade Bianche, the Slovenian starting his 2024 campaign with an epic, 81-km solo win. Tom Pidcock, the 2022 winner, hopes to give him a run for his money in 2025. Now with Red Bull, last season’s third place Maxim Van Gils is back.
Lotte Kopecky took the women’s edition for the second time, continuing SD Worx-Protime’s stranglehold on the race. The 2024 runner-up, Elisa Longo Borghini, returns to the gravel fresh off of her UAE Tour title in her first race for ADQ. FDJ-Suez is sending Juliette Labous and 2023 victor Demi Vollering. Tour de France champ Katarzyna Niewiadoma and comeback kid Anna van der Breggen are in the mix as well.
Canadians penciled in for Saturday are Olivia Baril, Magdeleine Vallieres, Simone Boilard and Hugo Houle.
The Course
There are 70 km of gravel roads across 14 sectors on the 213-km route. Hard and hilly Sectors 5 (11.9 km) and 6 (8 km) only have 1 km of tarmac between them. Long Sector 8 of San Martino in Grania (9.5 km) is characterized by constant ups and downs in the first part and ends with a twisting climb. Sector 11 Monte Sante Marie is the hardest of the race, a punishing 11.5 km of mostly tough hills.
In Siena, with 900 metres to the finish line, the race route passes beneath Fontebranda Gate where the road surface turns to cobbles. The gradient kicks up to 10 percent until 500 metres from the line, with a maximum gradient of 16 percent along Via Santa Caterina.
The Strade Bianche Donne is a condensed version of the men’s corsa, with 13 sectors over 136 km. The San Martino sector comes hard on the heels of another sector of similar length.