It’s happening people, it’s happening! The World Tour series returns after a hiatus of five months. In March, the cycling world stopped due to the pandemic just right before the Strade Bianche. And now this is the race the rescheduled calendar restart with.
Strade Bianche is the race of gravel roads around Siena. The landscape provides the best of Tuscany, which might be one of the main reasons, why this race, despite being only a decade and a half old, became so popular. Because the background defines the race so well, it will be surely a new experience even for the audience to see the hot, dry and dusty fields instead of the wet and muddy which is more common in early March. (Fun fact: the very first edition was held in October 2007, but later the race was moved to its perfect place before the Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo )
Another new experience will be for the fans, especially for those, who haven’t seen any cycling race since spring, that you can’t escape from reality. There are plenty of new customs should remind you, that there is a serious worldwide pandemic out there. The most obvious sign is that riders will be wearing a mask right before and after the race, crewmembers and other background people even during the entire event.
But finally, let’s talk about the sporty aspects.
Strade Bianche will start and finish in Siena, the course will be 184 km long. The riders will spend a third (63 km) of it on gravel roads. The program includes a total of 11 gravel sectors, which can give the opportunity to shake up the race a little bit. According to the previous editions, the 8th sector will be most likely the place of some race-defining attacks.
The terrain is hilly, without any major climb, but lots of small, short but steep ascents, especially the last one in Siena, inside the final kilometre.
Can we predict a race after a so long break?
Well, at least we can talk about the possible main protagonists.
All the still active previous winner, Philippe Gilbert (2011), Michał Kwiatkowski (2014 and 2017), Zdenek Stybar (2015), Tiesj Benoot (2018) and Julian Alaphilippe (2019) will attend the race. It seems to be evident to mention them in the first place. After all, they already know, how to win this race.
There is only one rider, who managed to win the race 3 times, Fabian Cancellara (2008, 2012, 2016), with a victory on Saturday Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos) can join him.in this very exclusive club.
Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal) and Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) are riding in a new team in 2020, this can give them extra motivation. Gilbert is preparing for the Milano Sanremo (08.08.2020), the only missing piece of his Monument collection, so he definitely must be in good shape. Benoot demonstrated his good form before the Big Break, but you know, it was before the Big Break.
Meanwhile, Julian Alaphilippe and Zdenek Stybar (both Deceuninck- Quick-Step) are quite attack-friendly, aggressive riders, they can be always protagonists of a race, even when they don’t reach a top result.
Another group of riders are who got their experiences from trying and falling. Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) and Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe) were close to the triumph several times. If Alaphilippe and Stybar are attack-friendly riders, Van Avermaet and Sagans are mostly the engines of a race. I have the feeling, that Sagan is no more on that high level as he was in his best years, but he can refute my assertion quite easily on Saturday. Meanwhile, Van Avermaet still seems to have a more solid and constant form. (Although, he is the older one.)
Also, Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) could have learnt much from his second place behind Alaphilippe last year.
And here we come to my top favourite for this year’s Strade Bianche: Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma). He attended the race only twice but finished 3rd in both cases. But I recognized a bit of improvement between his performance in 2018 and 2019, which gives me the feeling. he needs a bit of routine, he needs to learn a race deeper to give his best.
And there is van der Poel…
The phenomenon called Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) will give his debut on the famous white gravel roads on Saturday. He can make any race he attends easily epic. Although his team wasn’t invited to every big event, Van der Poel delivered a sensational performance during the last spring.
And he will ride Strade Bianche. Should I say any more?
Other notable mentions: Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Oliver Naesen (AG2R), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren), Daniel Oss (BORA-hansgrohe) and Alberto Bettiol (Team EF).
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