There was a remarkable moment at the 2026 Strade Bianche Women on Saturday as a chase group full of big-name riders took a wrong turn and effectively rode themselves out of contention.
With 33km left to race, a group containing the defending champion Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ), the former winner Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), and the Tour de France champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), turned off course and down a rough gravel track that was not part of the race.
The group appeared to have been led astray by a motorbike, who clipped onto the gravel track straight ahead rather than following the curve of the asphalt road round to the left, which was the official route.
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The riders continued downhill on increasingly gnarly gravel for a few hundred metres before realising that it was not part of the course, and turning around. It didn't help that they had to get going again from a virtual standstill on a fairly steep gradient and a horrible surface.
The group was around a minute down on the front of the race at the time – down but not out with decent firepower and apparent cohesion in the group. However, by the time they'd dragged their way back on course, the deficit was almost three minutes, and chances of a top result had evaporated.
Vollering and Ferrand-Prévot, both big pre-race favourites, were on the back foot after suffering mechanicals on the Le Tolfe sector of uphill gravel with just over 40km to race. Ferrand-Prévot appeared to suffer a jammed chain before Vollering suffered a puncture.
Ferrand-Prévot took a long time to get a new bike, and was only just getting back into the chase group by the time the wrong turn was taken. In fact, it appeared that she came flying into the group just as they were beginning to to turn around, following the wrong path taken by the riders she'd seen up ahead.
Also in the group were Kim Le Court Pienaar and Letizia Borghesi (AG Insurance-Soudal), Anna van der Breggen and Nienke Vinke (SD Worx-Protime), Mavi Garcia, Silvia Persico and Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ), Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Millie Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech), and Femke De Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike).
In the end, there was cause for celebration for Vollering, whose teammate Elise Chabbey grabbed victory in Siena, with another FDJ rider, Franziska Koch, on the podium in third.
Race report | Strade Bianche Women: Elise Chabbey lands surprise victory in electric conclusion to a thriller in Tuscany
