The gravel roads of Tuscany produced another spectacular edition of Strade Bianche, with thrilling racing, big-name winners, crashes and drama in the dust.
In just 19 years, Strade Bianche has become one of most loved races in the sport, with the women's race as important as the men's race. There is no longer any debate that Strade Bianche is cycling's sixth Monument.
The riders love racing through the Tuscan hills and vineyards despite the risk of crashing on the gravel roads. Fans love to watch the racing on the gravel climbs, and 6500 people rode on the same Strade Bianche roads during Sunday's Gran Fondo. Even Friday's team presentation had a party atmosphere, with beer flowing in the expo area and fans able to get up close to the riders as the men's and women's teams were presented together. Every major race should be like that.
Yet, despite the success, Strade Bianche is suffering from growing pains, with some of its current limitations hampering future development.
Like across much of our sport, the potential is still huge, but changes are needed - to improve the racing, to improve the fan experience and to make Strade Bianche a race even non-cycling fans around the world want to watch. We have several ideas that could make Strade Bianche even better.
Great racing is central to a great event, and we saw that in both races this year.
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Tom Pidcock's resurrection after his Ineos Grenadiers divorce and move to Q36.5 continued, and he admitted his defiant challenge was the best road race performance of his career. The Yorkshireman is going to be a contender in every Classic he rides in 2025.
The women's race was an even more fascinating duel, packed with significance and inflaming a narrative that will run all season. It was student versus the master, Demi Vollering versus Anna van der Breggen, FDJ-Suez versus SDWorx, and Vollering against her recent coach and directeur sportif, who is now again a rival in the biggest races.
Vollering won for a second time, but Van der Breggen showed she is already competitive and again hungry for success after a three-season retirement. Not forgetting that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was the next best, also highlighting that she can again be one of women's road cycling's top stars after a four-year hiatus from the discipline.
Watching the riders finish in the Piazza del Campo, where the Palio horse race is also held, is akin to being in the Roubaix Velodrome or even better.
The riders are covered in dust, their bodies fatigued and often bloodied. They are in pain but also proud to have finished Strade Bianche, whatever the result. Strade Bianche is spectacular, but that should not justify the pain or compromise rider safety. There were arguably too many crashes this year when the sport should be trying to protect its protagonists and improve safety. The long injury list is an indication that change and innovation are needed.
Strade Bianche was inspired by the L'Eroica ride done every autumn on vintage bikes that was born out of the love for cycling on the beautiful and historic gravel roads of Tuscany. The fundamental reasons for Strade Bianche's success remain strong, but there is still potential for growth and improvement.
Vollering and Van der Breggen lit up the racing in Saturday's women's race at Strade Bianche (Image credit: Getty Images)
What Cyclingnews believes should be changed for the better
While it might be an easy solution to reach for, mandating the use of gravel bikes at Strade Bianche isn’t the silver bullet it might seem in order to slow riders down and make them safer. There’s nothing to stop teams from using gravel bikes and running them with 28c tyres in an effort to improve the more stunted aerodynamics of modern gravel bikes compared to their road-going cousins.
Instead, a minimum tyre width could be insisted upon - something which could also apply to races like Paris-Roubaix - of around 34c. Our own testing shows wider tyres to be faster, especially on rough surfaces, but it would also increase grip both on and off the tarmac, and therefore improve the safety of the event. This may result in an unfair situation favouring teams whose road bikes can clear such wide tyres however, but given the pace of change in road bike design, it’s likely that this would only last a season or two.
Strade Bianche has become longer and harder in recent years, with the hilly terrain making it more and more a race for the climbers rather than the beefier Classics riders. Pogačar is both, but he is almost unique in the men's peloton. Fortunately, the women are more multi-talented and target more objectives during the season.
The cobbled Classics riders now have little chance of winning Strade Bianche, while Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič don't want to risk crashing on the gravel. Juan Ayuso, Adam and Simon Yates, Jai Hindley, Derek Gee, Giulio Ciccone and Cian Uijtdebroeks are in Italy this weekend to ride Tirreno-Adriatico but snubbed Strade Bianche. Only two riders from the top 20 of the UCI ranking (Pogačar and Marc Hirschi), rode this year's men's Strade Bianche. That's not good for the sport and a warning sign of the problem. Why not make it obligatory for the top 50 riders in the sport to ride at least 90% of the sport's biggest Classics each season?
Strade Bianche doesn't need to be extra long and hard; 160km with 50km of gravel is enough for the men, as is 120km with 40km of gravel for women. The races need to be intense, tactical and entertaining, not just a battle of survival. Shorter races would also allow the most spectacular sections of gravel to be placed later in the race route and so seen on live television.
Strade Bianche's early March date makes sense for lots of reasons, especially the desire of Siena and Tuscany to have a major sporting event before the main holiday season. However, Strade Bianche is arguably bigger than Tirreno-Adriatico and many other races. Any reforms of the race calendar for 2026 should look at finding a better date for Strade Bianche. Why not the last weekend of February, a week before Omloop Het Nieuwsblad or a switch with Milan-San Remo?
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
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