The cancellation of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race means that the 2021 Women’s WorldTour began at Strade Bianche on March 6 in Italy. The race once again took on the white gravel roads routed throughout the scenic Tuscany region.
Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (SD Worx) won the women's 2021 Strade Bianche, riding away from Italian Champion Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) on the Via Santa Caterina climb in the final kilometre to finish off an excellent team effort. World Champion Anna van der Breggen finished third place in Siena.
The organisers of Strade Bianche WorldTour men's and women's races, RCS Sport, announced that they would use the same 136km route as the 2020 Strade Bianche won by Annemiek van Vleuten, a two-time winner, who finished fourth place in the 2021 edition.
After winning the 2021 Strade Bianche, Van den Broek-Blaak will wear the first leader’s jersey of the Women's WorldTour into the more traditional Spring Classics.
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope
6
Demi Vollering (Ned) Team SD Worx
7
Marianne Vos (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team
0:00:23
8
Marta Cavalli (Ita) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope
0:00:27
9
Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM Racing
0:00:30
10
Ellen van Dijk (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
0:00:32
The women's 136km race started at 9:10am CET and include a total of 31.4km of gravel across eight sectors, before finishing on the steep ascent at the Piazza del Campo in Siena.
Van den Broek-Blaak joins the list of previous winners; Van Vleuten won the previous two editions of Strade Bianche, and other past winners include Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx), Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini of Trek-Segafredo, and Megan Guarnier.
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