Strade Bianche, the 6th Monument?
Without question, Strade Bianche is one of the most popular one-day races of our time. Among both riders and the audience. Emerged from a typically Italian grand fondo, the first edition for professional riders was held in 2007. Alexandr Kolobnev was the first winner of the race, and Fabian Cancellara holds the record of 3 victories (2006, 2012 and 2016). Besides him, only Michal Kwiatkowski could double his success in 2017 after his first triumph in 2014.
One of the reasons for its even growing popularity is the place where the race happens. The hilly landscape of Tuscany ( the most known and beloved region of Italy by foreigners), and thewhite gravel roads between the vineyards makes Strade Bianche one of the most beautiful cycling events of the year.
Cycling fans are asking more and more often, is Strade Bianche is the 6th Monument? The answer is, that it could be something like this. Calling certain one-day races (Milano-Sanremo, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Il Lombardia) Monuments is not a legal term, not a result of some rules, but part of the oral history.
Traditionally, the first editions of these races were held before the World War 1 and except the years in wars they are held undisrupted since then. They are long (cca. 250-300 km long), which is the heritage of the old fashioned cycling races with their inhuman long routes, and were held in such a lucky following order, that most of the stars of a certain period could compete each other.
In the case of Strade Bianche it looks like only the last “requirement” is fullfilled: since a few years, the possibly best peloton comes together on the day of the race in Sienna.
The season 2021 brought a very important novum: the winners of the two most recent editions of the Tour de France (Egan Bernal and Tadej Pogacar) rode the white roads of Italy. They not just attended, but even competed, attacked, played an active role in a really memorable race.
The entertaining generation
In the last time more and more journalists and experts are talking about the new golden era of road cycling. The most solid basic of these statements is, that the races are really entertaining because of the real competing and attack-friendly attitude of the most successful riders. The audience can sense the joy, how these young stars are really enjoying to compete against each other. Cyclists like Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck- Quick Step) are kind of showmen, in a good way. Due to their racing style cycling races nowadays are rarely dull. Even their stupid mistakes – like Alaphilippe’s too early celebration at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege – makes them a legend, because road cycling is the sport, where the failures and mistakes are also highly appreciated.
Flashback 2020
The unique year 2020 brought to us a summer edition of the race, which had several important consequences. This was the first UCI World Tour event after months of lockdown situation due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, due to the several technical issues some of the main protagonists, like Julian Alaphilippe or Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) missed the final battle. Yet, it was spectacular as always, and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who rode a 12 kilometer long solo, was a well deserved winner of the race.
Having fun on the white roads of Italy
After the unusual season 2020, the year 2021 started as a normal one again, at least in the terms of having races in their usual places in the calendar. Strade Bianche was held, as usual in the first half of March, after the traditional Opening Weekend in Belgium.
A really elite peloton came together for this occasion, with no one, but two Tour de France winners, Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). Mathieu Van der Poel and Wout van Aert, the big rivals of the cyclocross season were there too, also the reigning Wold Champion Julian Alaphilippe, the new supertalent Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) and all the usual faces of the spring one-day races season like Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R-Citroen), Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) or Jacob Fuglsang (Astana – Premier Tech).
The real fight among the favourites started inside the last 60 kilometer. Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) made a good move. Such a shame, that the young talent had later technical issues, so he dropped from the group of favourites.
Reaching the 50 km mark, we witnessed a serious attemp: a group including Wout van Aert, Mathieu Van der Poel, Julian Alaphilippe, Tom Pidcock, Tadej Pogacar, Egan Bernal and Michael Gogl (Team Qhubeka Assos) established. As you can see, this was a group of historical meaning. Two Tour de France winners, the reigning World Champion, the two guys with several cyclocross world champion titles, a third one with also several podium places, oh yes and Michael Gogl, who made an impressive look also last year.
In the terrifiing 9th sector, Alaphilippe tried to change the race, this made Van Aert and Pidcock dropped, but they was able to come back a bit later. The next important attack came from Van der Poel. This was the real winning strike, after this move only him, Alaphilippe and a bit later rejoining Bernal remained at the front of the race.
Mathieu Van der Poel had an another important attack with 2 km to go, it wasn’t the last time, but the one at 450 m was his winning move, and with a powerful performance he won the race.
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Do you want to read more article about the new golden era of road cycling racec?
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Giro d’Italia 2021 – Where the race was won – 6 moments of Egan Bernal