On a Saturday at the beginning of March. Deep in the rolling hills of Tuscany. You will find the most beautiful race of the season. Named after the famous Italian white gravel roads that comprise 1/3 (11 sections) of the race route each year. Strade Bianche distinguishes itself with breathtaking views of ancient vineyards, villages, vicious climbs, and verifiably insane descents.

Trek Travel

Something else sets this race apart from the other Italian Classics… It’s relatively young. Strade Bianche started its life as L’Eroica Strade Bianche, Or “Heroic Race of the White Roads”, in 1997 as a Grand Fondo race. Which is typically a recreational bike race, but these riders use bicycles built no later than 1988. Which, to be perfectly honest with you… seems like a MUCH more baller move than rolling up with a full aero, climbing, or gravel bike with a clutched drivetrain. But it wasn’t until 2007 that it became a professional bike race. The Grand Fondo still takes place the following day, if you indeed love beautiful views and an intense amount of suffering in the legs. Although If you’re reading this, you probably are into those very things. In fact, that was the reason the race was created to begin with. To showcase the geographical features and village that the Tuscan countryside has to offer.

Pez Cycling

Although young, Strade Bianche has proven itself a modern Classic. The riders cresting the steep hills covered in white dust with drips of sugar water, sweat, and tears the only things you see across their faces. The early years of the race were absolutely dominated by Fabian Cancellara. The only rider to have a section of gravel named after him, by winning the race three times. Modern Classics heroes like Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and most recently Tom Pidcock have targetted and taken home the gold after dispatching their rivals in the dusty Tuscan landscape. Anybody familiar with those three shouldn’t be surprised to hear that they were successful here, but it isn’t an easy feat no matter how good of a rider you are.

Each year the race grows more popular and shows off the rich cycling tradition of the area while being the catalyst of conversation on what qualifies as a Monument. Monuments are both old and 250-300km long. Strade Bianche is young and 215km long but is quickly becoming everyone’s favorite race. I’m not here to tell you one way or another but it seems like the race is here to stay and is one of the more exciting days on the cycling calendar. So embrace the spirit of Italian Gravel and Watch this Saturday, March 2nd! My money is on Christophe Laporte but would love to see Ben Healy take off with the win from a long-ranged attack. Be on the lookout for Michał Kwiatkowski on Ineos Grenadiers. He has won the race twice and one more win and he will have a section of gravel named after him along with Cancellara.