Profile. Strade Bianche is on the road on the 2nd of March. The Italian classic is one of the most recent in the peloton but was one of the most beloved and unique. In the gravel roads of Tuscany, every year the best classics riders fight for an iconic win.
Overall the route remains very recognizable, but organizers have made it extra hard for 2024. Almost an extra hour of racing, the 2024 edition has 215 kilometers in distance and is even longer than in the past. A true endurance race now, besides all else.
There are 71Km of gravel divided into 15 sectors, as short as 600 meters long and as big as 11.9Km in length, and they aren’t concentrated in any specific area of the route but rather spread evenly throughout the race, it’s one of attrition, where tactics, positioning and let’s admit, a tad bit of luck all have to be ticked off the box. The route starts off in some rolling roads and just a bit before the halfway point of the race the first major challenge comes.
Click here to create your own team for the Fantasy Strade Bianche. At least $1625/€1,500/£1,285 in prizes.
Lucignano d’Asso sector, the 5th and biggest of the race and finishes with 127Km to go, it’s a fairly hard sector that has a lot of room for crashes, punctures, splits, etc… Every sector (and well every Kilometer) is a chance for something to go wrong, and like in the cobbles it’s a matter of having the least possible energy spent unnecessary, this is where the real race starts!
Click here to create your own team for the Fantasy Strade Bianche. At least $1625/€1,500/£1,285 in prizes.
Monte Sante Marie is perhaps the first crucial sector of the race, ending with just over 72 kilometers to go and featuring a whole kilometer at 10%. However the sheer size and diversity of gradients found throughout the sector makes it a brutal one that will inevitably explode the race.
Colle Pinzuto finishes with 47Km to go and is one of the last pieces of brutal roads where gaps can be made out of power and not opportunity, it’s one that doesn’t include descents so it’s quite a brute.
Le Tolfe follows, it summits with 42Km to go and is a U shaped sector, you enter it full speed in a descent and then have a nasty ramp in the gravel, the last white road of the race and for sure at this race we can have the rider, or the group of riders who will fight for the win.
This now is where the route changes. Traditionally, the riders would then have a few hills and ride into Siena just a few kilometers away. In 2024 an extra loop is added. This will feature the 1.3-kilometer long Strada del Castagno which finishes with 39 kilometers to go, and then the 3.3-kilometer long downhill San Giovanni a Cerreto which ends with 22.5 kilometers to go.
In antecedes Colle Pinzuto and Le Tolfe which will be climbed for a second time. These will end with 17 and 12 kilometers to go, by this point the race may already be decided, but if not certainly these pinch points can be the end of many riders' ambitions.
From there on there are 12 kilometers into the finish line. They will by no means be easy as the road keeps tilting either up or down, however it does give some opportunity to reconsolidate the race and possible form alliances ahead of the final ascent.
If a group, it will all be decided in the narrow streets of Siena, Via Santa Caterina is one of the most iconic places in cycling and you’re sure to get some awesome images. The decisive ramp will go up to 16% in it's steepest section (700 meters, 9% average gradient) and the final corners into the heart of Siena will be a final opportunity to overtake other riders.
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