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2017 Strade Bianche preview: the white roads join the WorldTours

Five Canadian women to ride the dirt, Houle and Tuft slated for the men's race

March 1, 2017
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Saturday is the third one-day race of the 2017 UCI WorldTour calendar and the season opener of the Women’s WorldTour, the Strade Bianche. The men’s race is its 11th edition and its first as a WorldTour event. The races are famous for their tough sections of Tuscan white dirt roads.


This year the men’s race has two additional sections of sterrati, with 11 sections of dirt road totaling 61.9-kilometres over a route of 175-km. The toughest and longest section is sector 8, the 11.5-kilometre stretch at Monte Sante Marie. It has been renamed in honour of Fabian Cancellara, who claimed his third victory last year, his last one-day race triumph before retirement.


The winning move might be made on the Sante Marie or the 2.4-km Colle Pinzuto dirt climb with 17-km remaining, but the true battle occurs on the final steep climb to the Piazza del Campo in Siena. Last year Cancellara put Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic/Quick Step) in the gutter to seize the win, and in 2015 it was Stybar answering a Campo dig from Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) to put the sword to the Belgian and Alejandro Valverde.

The women have a slightly shorter course with 8 sections of white gravel for a dirt total of 30.5-km. They miss out on the Cancellara climb but get the nasty San Martino in Grania smack dab in the middle of the course. The last 30-km, including the Colle Pinzuto and the Campo climb, are the same as the men’s race.

Stybar and Van Avermaet are back, with the Belgian having won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Stybar’s Quick Step desperate for a win. Peter Sagan (Slovaka/Bora-Hansgrohe) was second and first in the Flanders Opening Weekend. Michel Kwiatkowski (Poland/Sky) wore the crown in 2014. Fabio Aru (Astana) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) look to give the Tuscan crowds an Italian winner. All must heed Tiejs Benoot (Belgium/Lotto-Soudal) and Jasper Stuyven (Belgium/Trek-Segafredo).

Winners of both of the previous women’s races, last year’s inaugural Women’s WorldTour winner Megan Guarnier (USA) and Brit Lizzie Deignan (née Armistead), are back for edition three, and they both race for Boels-Dolmans. Last year’s runner up Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland/WM3 Energie) is seeking revenge. Lucinda Brand (The Netherlands/Team Sunweb) has the hot hand after winning the Het Nieuwsblad.

Brand’s teammate Leah Kirchmann is one of five Canadian women lining up in Siena. Joëlle Numainville gets her fourth start for new team Cylance Pro Cycling. Karol-Ann Canuel is part of the strong Boels-Dolmans line-up. Lex Albrecht debuts for Team TIBCO-SVB. Alison Jackson races for Bepink Cogeas.