PREVIEW | Strade Bianche Donne 2025 - Vollering, Pieterse and Longo Borghini the main favourites... But a dozen other top riders can also win!
Cycling
On the 8th of March the women's peloton will take on one of the toughest and most exciting classics in pro cycling. Strade Bianche Donne is always a race that crowns some of the very best and this year should be no exception. We preview the race ahead.
13 gravel sectors in what is one of the most exciting races of the year. Without a doubt there will be a lot of spectacle amongst the climbers and classics specialists who have a route full of opportunities to make the difference.
Over 50 kilometers of gravel roads in a total of 135 kilometers, with the first half of the race having the longest sectors, and the second half the hardest and steepest. The riders will have to tackle a two-lap circuit with the brutal Colle Pinzuto and Le Tolfe before heading into Siena where the traditional finale at the Piazza del Campo will decide the race after the climb of the Via Santa Caterina.
This might be one of the very best ever startlists in the history of the sport. We lack the great Lotte Kopecky, but the truth is we have two dozen world-class riders who can each thrive in a race that is often chaotic. Luck, positioning and tactics mean a lot, specially when there is so much gravel early on. I rate Vollering, Pieterse and Longo Borghini slightly above the rest, and we may see the same two that attacked Omloop Het Nieuwsblad try to make the difference here on the climbs.
Prediction Strade Bianche Donne 2025:
*** Demi Vollering, Puck Pieterse, Elisa Longo Borghini
** Liane Lippert, Blanka Kata Vas, Silvia Persico
* Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Cédrine Kerbaol, Evita Muzic, Juliette Labous, Christina Schweiberger, Riejanne Markus, Mavi García, Lorena Wiebes, Anna van der Breggen, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Fem van Empel,
Pick: Puck Pieterse
How: It will come down to Via Santa Caterina and who has the most legs there.
Original: Rúben Silva
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- Covid racing was great! You could actually hear the cyclist suffering.
Front24215-04-2025 - I'm pretty sure that it was 2011, when he as on the Saxo Bank team, and the bikes in question are the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL3 and SL4.
santiagobenites15-04-2025 - It looks like either year, they were sponsored by Specialized. Good to know.acem8214-04-2025
- Alcohol is never an excuse, on the contrary, it's an aggravating factor.
maria2024202414-04-2025 - In the race they talk constantly to each other; it seems as if they're teammates. Obviously, when the crucial moment arrive, they attack each other to win, but it's evident the respect, sympathy, and friendship between them.maria2024202414-04-2025
- True, sorryMistermaumau14-04-2025
- Wout Van Aert won a Monument (San Remo, 2020), so he wouldn't be in that article. He might be in an article of riders like Sagan who were truly exceptional and won fewer monuments that expected. As for these two, they've won the last 7 monuments, 10 of the last 12, 15 of the last 20. Merckx and de Vlaeminck weren't that dominant in their era. It really is special the way these two race with such admiration for each other along the way. Rivals, not enemies.RidesHills14-04-2025
- So drunk Belgians will always target MvDP because they are drunk. That can't be right. If drunk Belgians target all other cyclist equally, then it may be reasonable.
KerisVroom14-04-2025 - Nobody cares about this nonsense.Front24214-04-2025
- Thanks! Hadn’t heard of that word so would have been hard to search very specifically without your input.Mistermaumau14-04-2025