Anna van der Breggen wins Strade Bianche in heroic solo

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Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) started her 2018 race programme with a cagey victory in Strade Bianche. She and last year's winner Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) attacked on the penultimate gravel sector, and when Longo Borghini dropped back due to a mechanical, Van der Breggen continued unabated. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) took up the chase, but it was too little too late, and the Pole finished as runner-up in Siena for the third time in a row. Longo Borghini rounded out the podium.

After a week with snow and temperatures below zero, the temperatures climbed above the freezing point on race day. Just before the neutral start, the rain began to come down and didn't stop for the whole 136km race turning the eight sectors' 31.6km of white roads of Tuscany into a brownish mixture of gravel, slush and water.

Mayuko Hagiwara (Alé-Cipollini), Sara Penton (Team Virtu Cycling), and Katia Ragusa (BePink) attacked early. After Hagiwara lost contact with the other two on the first gravel sector, the gap to the peloton stood at 1:17 minutes. This dropped again on the following sector, and the front duo was caught by the peloton after 39 km.

After the feed zone with around 75km to the finish, the star-studded Boels Dolmans team led the race onto sector five, the longest gravel sector at 9.5km. Here, Elisa Longo Borghini suffered a puncture which forced her to chase back on for a while after getting a spare wheel from a teammate. Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM) put in an attack and got a small gap, she was soon joined by World Champion Chantal Blaak (Boels Dolmans) and Ellen van Dijk (Team Sunweb).

This trio kept a gap of around 40 seconds throughout a 34km stretch with no gravel but was eventually caught by what was left of the peloton just after sector six. With 22km and two short but steeply-climbing gravel sectors to go, around 25 riders remained in contention.

Niewiadoma and Longo Borghini attacked into the seventh gravel sector, Colle Pinzuto, closely followed by Van der Breggen. At the end of the sector, it was Van der Breggen and Longo Borghini who opened up a gap of maybe 20 seconds. With 17km to the finish, Longo Borghini got something stuck in her wheel, leaving her unable to follow Van der Breggen.

On the final gravel sector of Le Tolfe, Niewiadoma went solo from the eight-strong chase group in an attempt to reach the front, but Van der Breggen paced herself well. At the 10-kilometre mark, she was a minute ahead of Niewiadoma who had caught Longo Borghini. The Dutchwoman held this advantage into Siena where she could celebrate victory on the Piazza del Campo. Niewiadoma left Longo Borghini behind on the final kilometre to take second place.

With this victory, Anna van der Breggen takes the lead in the 2018 Women's WorldTour, a classification that she already won in 2017.

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