FDJ United-Suez went into Strade Bianche on Saturday with the race favourite in Demi Vollering, but finished the day with another rider on the top step. Elise Chabbey took advantage of a chaotic race to score the biggest win of her career so far, ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney of Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, who finished second. The French team also finished in third place with new signing Franziska Koch. Hometown hero, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), finished the day in fourth.
The dry roads led to quite a few crashes and mechanicals throughout the race, and Vollering, along with a few other pre-race favourites, were led off-course by a moto while they were trying to chase back into the winning group with 32 km to go.
[race_result id=9044 stage_id=0 count=10 gc=0 year=2026]
Elise Chabbey could barely believe what just happened...
How it happened
- There were some attacks early in the race, including from Canadian champion Alison Jackson of St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93, but the peloton went into the longest gravel sector, 76 km from the finish, all together. The gravel was especially loose, which caused a lot of crashes before the midway point. Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) were two of the riders who went down.
- As the race entered the final circuit, to be completed twice before the finish, FDJ United-Suez controlled the pace with five of its six riders at the front of the race. Other teams with numbers included Visma-Lease a Bike, UAE Team ADQ, and Lidl-Trek all with three apiece. EF Education-Oatly and Fenix-Premier Tech each had two, while Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Picnic PostNL, AG Insurance-Soudal, SD Worx-Protime, Liv AlUla Jayco, and Movistar all only had one rider left.
- With numbers in their favour, FDJ United-Suez let loose Elise Chabbey, who attacked on the first passage of Colle Pinzuto. The Swiss rider was joined by Dominika Włodarczyk of UAE Team ADQ. Instead of trying to pull the two back in, Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike sent riders on the attack to join the escapees ahead of the bigger names.
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