The 10th edition of Strade Bianche one day race takes place in the Tuscany region of Italy this Sunday (6th March, 2016).
Strade Bianche is a modern race starting in 2007. Strade Bianche means ‘white streets’, a reference to the white gravel roads that are a defining feature of the race. A quarter of the races 200km distance are raced over dirt roads.
Recent History
The winners of the last five editions of Strade Bianche were:
- 2011 – Philippe Gilbert (BEL) – Omega Pharma-Lotto
- 2012 – Fabian Cancellera (SUI) – Radioshack Nissan
- 2013 – Moreno Moser (ITA) – Cannondale
- 2014 – Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) – Omega Pharma-Quick-Step
- 2015 – Zdenek Stybar (CZE) – Etixx-Quick-Step
Many of the riders that feature in Strade Bianche will use this as a warmup to race in the week long Tirreno-Adriatico (starts 9th March, 2016) and the more prestigious, One Day Classic – Milan-San Remo (19th March, 2016).
Types suited to the race
Riders that do well here tend to be the strong, powerful classics types or riders within the peloton. Past winners include Philippe Gilbert and Fabian Cancellera (also a winner in 2008).
The last two winners of the race had been regarded as young up-and-coming future Classics challengers prior to their victory. Kwiatkowski went on to win the Road-race World Championship later in 2014.
Weather can play a key role in this race. If it rains the 50kms of dirt road sections will cause havoc within the peloton. If there is rain you can expect there to be lots of groups strewn across the course.
Even if there is no rain, the bumpy nature of the course and the dirt road sections are perfect springboards for the stronger riders to launch an escape.
We do not see Strade Bianche as coming down to a regular sprint finish from the peloton. Rather, we would expect a smaller group of 12-15 riders to escape and fight it out for victory in the approaches to the uphill finish in Siena.
Riders who will feature
The field for the 2016 edition is very strong including previous winners Cancellera (2008 & 2012), Kwiatkowski (2014) and Stybar (2015). It includes:
- Multiple Grand Tour winner, Vincenzo Nibali (Astanta) backed by a strong team;
- Multiple World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) who will support Stybar;
- Greg van Avermaet (BMC) who is on great form and winner at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite last Saturday;
- Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) the 2015 World Road Race Champion – 2nd to van Avermaet last Saturday;
- Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) a racer who has been successful on these types of courses in the past
Of these Nibali has the incentive of racing at home in Italy, has form, wants to prove a point that he is favourite leading in to the Giro d’Italia and is suited to the uphill finish in Siena will suit them.
Sky’s provisional team for Strade-Bianchi has almost completely changed and will now be geared to supporting Kwiatkowski as he attempts to win here for the second time.
Valverde Belmonte has won a number of classics with this type of terrain (La Fleche Wallonne – 3 times, Liege-Bastogne-Liege – 3 times and Classica San Sebastian – twice) and finished 3rd in 2014 and 2015.
Greg van Avermaet probably has the best form of any rider in the race with a win last weekend in a tough Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. He finished second here in 2015 and is a chance here.
Peter Sagan is always a danger in Classics races. He possesses a better sprint than any of the aforementioned riders and he was runner-up Strade-Bianche in 2013 and 2014.
Tips
It wouldn’t surprise me if there was an elite breakaway group with Nibali, Valverde Belmonte, van Avermaet, Kwiatkowski and Sagan all in contention for the win on Friday.
I am going to back the a rider who is a little more explosive in an uphill sprint.
Back Vincenzo Nibali to win with a 1/10 stake E/W at 15.0 with Paddypower (paying 1/4 of the odds for the top 4).
Back him here:
