Strade Bianche has rapidly grow to be one of the in style one-day races of the Spring Classics season. This 12 months’s males’s and ladies’s pelotons will compete throughout the hilly Italian terrain with its foray onto the signature white gravel roads by Tuscany.
The occasion is billed as “Europe’s most southern northern basic” and it’s set to carry thrilling motion from each races held on March 8 in and round Siena.
The race that brings the WorldTour highlight to unpaved terrain has grown – in parallel with the ever-expanding gravel racing scene – for the reason that first version of the boys’s race in 2007 and the primary version of the ladies’s race in 2015.
The males’s discipline will race alongside a 213km route that may exceed 80km of white gravel, totalling 81.7km unfold throughout 16 sections of white gravel roads whereas the ladies’s discipline will race alongside a 138km route with 13 sectors totalling 50.3km of gravel. The unpaved sections, will after all play to the strengths of the multi-discipline specialists – like former winners Tom Pidcock, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert – they definitely haven’t got all of it their very own approach. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has claimed victory in two of the final three males’s editions whereas the ladies’s race has by its historical past remained the area of the highest street specialists, with Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering the final two winners.
There are some notable absences from the races this 12 months together with former winners Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), together with Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), however there’s nonetheless an inventory of high names lining as much as chase the title. Cyclingnews runs the ruler over the sphere filled with potential champions.
Join Cyclingnews’ protection of the 2025 Strade Bianche girls’s and males’s occasions on March 8 with reside protection, race studies, outcomes, picture galleries, information and race evaluation.
Tadej Pogačar will line up because the defending champion sporting the rainbow bands of the world champion and the peloton and followers will likely be ready in equal measure for the extremely anticipated searing assault that has netted him victories on two events in Siena.
His efficiency a 12 months in the past noticed him trip away from the sphere on an 81km solo rampage into Siena, win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, and safe a record-equalling fourth consecutive Il Lombardia triumph.
His season was record-breaking, dominant and virtually unparalleled, and so it’s no surprise that his rivals within the peloton questioned their means to include the world champion at first of this season on the UAE Tour. Indeed, they might not, as Pogačar was the quickest to the highest of Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet to win the general title at his first race of the 12 months.
He heads into Strade Bianche because the outright favorite, once more, and will likely be in a great place to win a 3rd title in Siena with the help from UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates Tim Wellens and Isaac del Toro.
Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek)
Elisa Longo Borghini (Image credit score: Getty Images)
Elisa Longo Borghini additionally started her season in profitable type securing the general title on the UAE Tour whereas sporting the brand new colors of UAE Team ADQ. The Italian Champion gained her dwelling race, Strade Bianche, in 2017 and has been a high finisher by each participation, standing on the rostrum 4 different instances and at worst ending eighth.
She additionally had one among her finest seasons final 12 months profitable the Tour of Flanders for the second time in her profession and the general title on the Giro d’Italia, together with quite a few different podium performances.
Her switch from Lidl-Trek to UAE Team ADQ sparked some dialogue about how nicely the riders might help her management position in stage races and one-day occasions, however they put all hypothesis to relaxation after their strategic all-team assault within the crosswinds on stage 2 which successfully positioned Longo Borghini in pole place to win the UAE Tour earlier than they even reached the decisive Jebel Hafeet.
It will likely be fascinating to see how the staff can help her on the gravel street round Siena, however Longo Borghini has all the time been a savvy and opportunistic rider who has the energy to create her personal profitable race conditions. And with teammates like Silvia Persico, who was instrumental in Longo Borghini’s UAE Tour victory, and constant lieutenant Brodie Chapman, look ahead to Longo Borghini to triumph in Siena once more.
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team)
Tom Pidcock (Image credit score: Getty Images)
Pidcock has skilled a dream begin to his season sporting the brand new colors of Q36.5 Pro Cycling. The British multi-discipline champion has secured 4 victories throughout two stage races to this point within the early season, taking two wins and the general on the AlUla Tour earlier than profitable one other stage and ending third general on the Vuelta a Andalucia.
He additionally joined his staff at Opening Weekend the place he completed among the many major discipline at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad earlier than heading off to Italy to exchange the cobblestones for white gravel roads at Strade Bianche.
Pidcock grew to become the primary Briton to win males’s Strade Bianche after a 20km solo assault in 2023 and appears to be in a great place within the contest for victory once more this 12 months.
In his last season with Ineos Grenadiers, Pidcock gained the Amstel Gold Race and positioned a give attention to the Paris Olympic Games the place he gained the gold medal within the males’s cross-country mountain bike race.
Now together with his new staff, he’ll give attention to Strade Bianche after which flip his consideration to Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Ardennes Classics.
Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez)
Demi Vollering (Image credit score: Getty Images)
After she switched groups from SD Worx-Protime in 2024 to her new staff FDJ-SUEZ, in what was essentially the most talked about switch within the low season, Demi Vollering could not have had a greater begin to her season securing the general victory on the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad marked the beginning of her prolonged Spring Classics marketing campaign but it surely did not fairly go to plan, ending third three minutes behind breakaway riders Lotte Claes (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal), who earned the highest two spots on the rostrum.
Vollering beat her former teammate Lotte Kopecky in a dash to the road to win Strade Bianche in 2023, so she is aware of how you can race to win alongside the gravel roads all through Tuscany and onto the punishingly steep Santa Caterina climb resulting in the enduring entrance into Piazza del Campo.
She could have help from riders like Juliette Labous and Vittoria Guazzini, however belief that Vollering will likely be eager to observe the profitable breakaway and is highly effective sufficient to tug away from her rivals on the climb into Siena.
Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious)
Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) racing at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Image credit score: Getty Images)
Hard to look previous on any parcours that function some off-road, former Gravel world champion Matej Mohorič is definitely a contender for his compatriot Pogačar to consider.
The Bahrain Victorious rider is not coming into Strade Bianche in the most effective type, having completed a hundred and fiftieth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and never ending Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, nonetheless, he is proven his means to carry out on the white Tuscan roads earlier than.
Most lately, in 2024, Mohorič arrived on the Piazzo del Campo in Siena in fifth, enhancing on the sixth place he scored the 12 months prior. The Slovenian definitely has the expertise to carry out in Strade too, having raced the Italian Classic for seven of the previous eight years.
With nice climber and three-time top-ten finisher at Strade Bianche, Pello Bilbao additionally on Bahrain Victorious’ roster, Mohorič and the Spaniard needs to be proper up there within the struggle for no less than a podium.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)
Puck Pieterse (Image credit score: Getty Images)
After taking a month off from racing after the cyclocross season, Puck Pieterse returned to the street and simply missed the rostrum at each Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Omloop van het Hageland. Her third season of street racing, with a constructing calendar, has been her strongest begin forward of Strade Bianche, which has been a staple of her restricted calendar.
Of course, there’s an added benefit within the race with a considerable amount of unpaved sections as Pieterse demonstrated by coming fifth in her debut in 2023. It was then a decent thirteenth final 12 months with the rider not having the legs to observe the ultimate strikes. Still, the energy within the staff was evident with three riders from Fenix-Deceuninck within the high 20, Yara Kastelijn in eleventh and Christina Schweinberger in fifteenth.
The 2024 Tour de France stage 4 winner will this 12 months even have each lining up alongside her and the development in her outcomes on the run in races might point out that she’s coming in with type which will give her that little bit further within the finale.
Michael Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers)
Michal Kwiatkowski (Image credit score: Getty Images)
It was an unusually early begin to the season for Michal Kwiatkowski, with the 34-year-old making the journey to the Tour Down Under for the primary time and the early construct paid dividends at Clásica Jaén when the previous world champion took his first win in 18 months. After a troublesome run for the 34-year-old, with a again harm interrupting final season, and likewise a dry spell on staff wins that at that time had prolonged by to July of final 12 months, it was a much-needed enhance.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider has had a break for the reason that mid-February race and will likely be refreshing the race legs at Trofeo Laigueglia earlier than taking up the race to the Piazza del Campo. It is a race the place Kwiatkowski hasn’t had any massive leads to latest seasons, with two DNFs and an 18th and twelfth within the final 4 years however maybe the renewed confidence and early type might assist ship a return to the sharp finish of the race by which he has twice claimed victory, in 2014 and 2017.
Kasia Niewiadoma’s document at Strade Bianche is scattered with top-five and podium locations – her ten editions embrace three runner-up spots, a 3rd and two fourth-place finishes. The solely time she was outdoors the highest ten was when she delivered a DNF in 2020, together with greater than a 3rd of the sphere, in an version the place the scorching warmth took its toll.
After so many shut run battles that high step remains to be lacking, nonetheless, after Niewiadoma’s run in 2024 it appears like there’s little that she will’t do. There was a clear-cut finish to her win drought with La Flèche Wallonne after which she delivered the largest of victories, holding agency to assert the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift by a nail-biting 4 seconds.
On high of that, Niewiadoma could have a helpful new ally on her aspect at Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, who can be an alternate contender for the squad. The former FDJ Suez rider was on the rostrum in her final participation in 2023 and has not as soon as completed outdoors the highest ten. The new mixture ought to make a formidable duo that would assist one of many different break by to the highest step.
When Romain Grégoire made his debut for Groupama-FDJ as a 20-year-old neo-pro he was fast to indicate his potential on the race, ending eighth in his first ever WorldTour occasion. The 2024 version of that race did not ship on the identical degree however the season completed with a robust run because the French rider stepped onto the rostrum in his final two races, Veneto Classic and Giro del Veneto.
What’s extra he began 2025 strongly, with fourth general at Volta ao Algarve and the win within the youth classification. He then went on to benefit from a chaotic version of the Faun Ardèche Classic, with a collected efficiency that turned his second of 2024 right into a win this 12 months. As staff sports activities director Yvon Caër mentioned after the win “if he’s at this degree on the Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, we will hope for something”.
There are additionally another sturdy playing cards within the staff, to help or provide an alternate, particularly Valentin Madouas, who completed second on the race in 2023 and final 12 months took silver within the street race on the Olympic Games.
Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime)
Anna Van Der Breggen (Image credit score: Getty Images)
Three years of retirement definitely hasn’t meant that Anna van der Breggen has ceased to be a risk. The SD Worx-Protime rider was fast to make a mark when she launched again into the racing at Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana, coming third general. After that, she additionally went on to take seventh at Omloop van het Hageland with a strong displaying that left her driving a number of pivotal strikes which helped arrange her teammate Femke Gerritse’s victory.
As formidable an effort as that was, Van der Breggen nonetheless identified that “I’m not but the place I need to be”. The construct, nonetheless, seems clearly to be nicely on the best way so there isn’t any writing off her potential to seek out the rostrum at a race the place she got here third in her final participation in 2021 and gained in 2018. Her small foray into gravel racing final 12 months could even assist, with the rider getting some observe in on gravel roads when she took on The Traka 100km distance and swept up second place.
