Did Strade Bianche go too far? 2026 route trimmed after backlash

Strade Bianche has always sold itself as something different. Not a cobbled classic. Not a pure climbers’ race. A modern hybrid built around gravel, rhythm and repeated sharp efforts. But in the last two seasons, that balance shifted. The race was made longer, rougher and more extreme, and in doing so, it may have crossed a line.

The organisers’ answer is the 2026 route. Shorter. Less gravel. Fewer sectors. Not a full reset, but a clear step back from the most brutal version of the race yet. That change is not happening in a vacuum. It follows two editions that were not just selective, but brutally so.

In 2024, the organisers increased both the overall distance and the amount of gravel, turning Strade Bianche into a far more attritional race. In 2025, that same formula remained, and the result was familiar. Tadej Pogacar rode away to another long-range solo, even after crashing heavily, still beating Tom Pidcock, who himself finished well clear of the rest.

Two races. Two dominant solos. One rider type increasingly favoured. And quietly, some of the riders who once defined Strade Bianche stopped showing up.

Former winners Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel have both skipped the last two editions. That absence is hard to ignore. These are riders who built reputations on handling, power and repeated short efforts. The newer Strade Bianche, longer and more climbing-focused, no longer fitted them in the same way. What was once a race that bridged Classics riders and Ardennes-style puncheurs had become something closer to a long early-season endurance test.

The 2026 route is not a return to the old Strade Bianche, but it is a clear easing of the hardest version.

The men’s race drops from 215km to 201km. The amount of gravel falls from around 80km to 64km, spread across 14 sectors.

Two long gravel sections disappear completely. La Piana, which measured 6.4km, is removed. Serravalle, at 9.3km, is also cut. The opening gravel sector, Vidritta, is shortened from 4.4km to 2.4km.

That is not cosmetic. That is a real reduction in both volume and fatigue.

What stays is just as important. The heart of the race remains untouched. Monte Sante Marie stays. Colle Pinzuto stays. Le Tolfe stays. The finale still runs through a 30km circuit that now also includes the new Strada del Castagno section and Montechiaro, before repeating Colle Pinzuto and Le Tolfe again on the way to the steep finish in Siena’s Piazza del Campo.

So this is not about making Strade Bianche easy. It is about making it less extreme.

The 2024 and 2025 editions proved something very clearly. When Strade Bianche became longer and heavier on gravel, it narrowed the type of rider who could realistically win.

Pogacar thrived. Others faded earlier than they used to. The race became more predictable in shape, even if the riding itself was still spectacular.

That is the tension behind the 2026 changes. Spectacle is not the same as variety. A race can be hard and still offer multiple ways to win. When it becomes too hard in one specific way, it starts selecting the same profile again and again.

Cutting distance. Cutting gravel. Keeping the iconic sectors. That looks like an attempt to restore some of that lost balance.

Not a rejection of what Strade Bianche has become, but an admission that the hardest version of it may have gone just a little too far.