The WorldTour and Women's WorldTour season steps up a notch with the race many people think should be a Monument, Strade Bianche. The Italian one-day Classic pits riders against the hills of Tuscany, but also white gravel roads for an extra test.
It is always one of the best events of the year, such is its brutality, and whoever emerges first into Siena's Piazza del Campo is always a very deserving winner. There are 15 sectors of gravel, or sterrato, in the men's race, with 12 in the women's, so it is a test of bike handling as well as climbing power.
Strade Bianche last year was the very start of Tadej Pogačar’s epic year, the first win of many, and it all began with a ludicrous attack from over 80km out. That attack brought him the win, as the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was never seen again, and he won by almost three minutes in the end. Will he attack at the same point this year? Or leave it for later…
The battle of the ProTeam stars
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Two of the top favourites in the men’s race - Tom Pidcock and Marc Hirschi - have new teams this season, Q36.5 and Tudor, respectively. Both are ProTeams, and so the pair are now big fishes in smaller ponds, but at an attritional race like Strade, they shouldn’t need to rely on their teammates too much. Pidcock will be itching to nail a big win after success at smaller races this year.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Climber or puncheur?
Strade Bianche is a fascinating race, in that it suits all kinds of different riders, just like its bigger brother Milan-San Remo. There’s enough climbing in it to mean that proper climbers like Demi Vollering or Egan Bernal have done well in the past, but then many of the editions have been won by punchier riders like Wout van Aert and Lotte Kopecky. Riders in the middle, like Pogačar or Pidcock, might be the answer.
SD Worx-Protime’s stranglehold
The women’s race has been won four years in a row by the powerful Dutch squad, but it might be time for their reign to come to an end. SD Worx can still call upon world champion Lotte Kopecky, who has won the race twice and is unbeatable on her day, but have lost Vollering, Marlen Reusser and Niamh Fisher-Black. Kopecky won't be racing on Saturday, anyway. As a result, they are weaker - will anyone take advantage?
Elisa Longo Borghini’s new start
The Italian champion has already won the UAE Tour this season for her new squad, UAE Team ADQ, but the real tests begin for Elisa Longo Borghini when she returns to Europe. She has won the race before - in 2017 - but is now seemingly as good as ever, and UAE will be relying on the 33-year-old to perform in her first race in Italy this season.
Dusty day out
Reports from on the ground at Strade Bianche suggest that the race will be fast, hot and dusty, with good conditions in Tuscany meaning that there will be little stodgy sectors, and much more free-flowing. Who this will suit is up in the air, but it will mean that the iconic clouds of white gravel will be in all the photos. The descents, especially, will be raced aggressively.
Focus on: Le Tolfe
The Le Tolfe sector of sterrato is tackled twice by both the men and the women, and is the last one to be ridden before the run into the finish in Siena. It is only 600m at 8.6%, but it can make all the difference that far into the race. The final time for the women comes about 123km into their 136km race, while for the men it’s at 195km out of 213. If the race hasn’t already been decided, it should happen here.
How to watch
It is on TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland, accessible via a TV package or a Discovery+ subscription. Read more in our how to watch Strade Bianche guide.
Last year's podiums
Men’s
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG 2. Toms Skujinš (Lat) Lidl-Trek 3. Maxim Van Gils (Bel) Lotto Dstny
There were races last year where it felt like Tadej Pogačar was the only rider to watch, and Strade Bianche was one of them. It remains to be seen if the Slovenian is going to go for solo attacks from ridiculous distances this season too, and this race is the first real test of that. He could win this race in so many different ways.
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) ****
A winner in 2023, by an almost-as-impressive solo attack of 50km, the Brit is almost perfectly suited to the course of Strade Bianche. His bike-handling skills are up there with the best, so a bit of gravel isn’t an obstacle, and the climbing is his kind of thing too. In fact, the only likely obstacle is one Tadej Pogačar.
Marc Hirschi (Tudor) ***
Intriguingly, for a rider with the skillset that he has, Marc Hirschi has never finished in the top 50 at Strade Bianche. However, now with the pressure of being the big name rider in a small pond, rather than being a backup man to Pogačar at UAE, perhaps Hirschi will take his opportunity with both hands.
Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) *****
The Dutchwoman won Strade back in 2023 - who could forget that run-in with a horse? - and is the kind of all-rounder who suits the race. Her new FDJ-Suez team have had a good season already, and have every right to be considered among the favourites going into every Women’s WorldTour event. Vollering will want to beat SD Worx once again.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) ***
We haven’t seen too much of the multi-discipline world champion back on the road bike yet, with a reasonably quiet UAE Tour her only race so far this year. That will all change at her first appearance in Europe. She has the skills to excel on the gravel, but does she have the endurance for a long race? Time will tell.
Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) ****
The Tour de France Femmes champion certainly has the climbing skills to perform at Strade Bianche, but has always found herself out-muscled at the end of the race. She has finished on the podium four times, and in the new normal of SD Worx being a little weaker, perhaps now is the time for the Pole to win in Siena.
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Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
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