The women’s Spring Classics continue on Saturday with one of the best races of the year: Strade Bianche. This iconic Italian one-day, raced on the eponymous white roads of Tuscany, is as difficult as it is beautiful – and many would describe it as the most picturesque race on the calendar.
Before we dive into this preview of the 11th edition of the women’s Strade Bianche, be sure to check out Dane Cash’s preview of the men’s race, also here at Escape Collective.
The favourites
Let’s start with a teaser. Here’s who we have as the favourites for Saturday’s race:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Puck Pieterse
⭐⭐⭐: Marlen Reusser, Kasia Niewiadoma, Anna van der Breggen
⭐⭐: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
⭐: Liane Lippert, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Kim Le Court, Fem van Empel
How to watch
The race kicks off at 9:45am on Saturday, local time (7:45pm AEST / 1:45am MST / 3:45am EST) with live coverage expected to start a few hours after that, depending on where you are (e.g. coverage begins at 9:45pm in Australia’s eastern states).
So where can you find said coverage? Via Max in the US, TNT Sports in the UK, SBS in Australia, and FloBikes in Canada. And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out Joe Lindsey’s excellent guide to how to watch pro cycling in 2025 which has you covered for all WorldTour races this year.
The route
Of the 136 km in this year's women’s Strade Bianche, a solid 50.3 km will be raced on gravel roads. That’s the most kilometres of gravel in the history of the women’s race. As you can see from the profile below, the race’s 13 gravel sectors are spread pretty evenly throughout the route. They start just 14.2 km after the start in Siena, with the final sector wrapping up around 12 km from the finish, which is also in Siena (albeit elsewhere in town; in the stunning Piazza del Campo).
Like in Paris-Roubaix, each of Strade Bianche's gravel sectors are given a difficulty rating, from one to five stars. Here’s a quick look at some of those most important sectors:
#2: Bagnaia (4.8 km) – The first big challenge of the day featuring a long uphill drag at gradients above 10%. Ouch. ***
#5: Serravalle (9.3 km) – A new addition and the second-longest sector of the day … which flows right into the longest sector of the day. ***
#6: San Martino in Grania (9.4 km) – The day’s only five-star segment, ending with a serpentine climb at the end. *****
#8 & #12: Colle Pinzuto (2.4 km) – With the riders doing a local circuit near the end, they do this sector twice. It’s all uphill, with gradients of up to 15%. ****
#9 & #13: Le Tolfe (1.1 km) – Another repeated sector, and the final taste of gravel for the day. In the words of the race organisers, this sector is “characterized by a steep descent followed by a sharp climb with gradients peaking at 18%”. The perfect launch pad. ****
While the gravel sectors make Strade Bianche what it is, this would be a hard race even if it were all on tarmac – it’s up and down all day with more than 2,500 metres of climbing.
One of the toughest points of the race – and one of the most decisive – is the final kilometre into the Piazza del Campo. After a downhill approach to town, the road ramps up with 900 metres to go, turns to cobblestones, then ramps up again to around 16% on the Via Santa Caterina with roughly 500 metres to go. It’s a brutal final test before a few twists and turns to the finish.
The stars and storylines
Here are some of the questions you might have going into Saturday’s race.
Remind me: what happened last time around?
World champ Lotte Kopecky attacked from a small lead group with around 10 km to go, with only Elisa Longo Borghini able to follow. Kopecky then dropped the Italian on the Santa Catarina climb, around 600 metres from the finish, opened a gap, and took her second win at the race. Note that Kopecky is not racing this weekend.
How does the race normally play out?
It’s become a cliche to use the term “race of attrition” but this race really is that. The difficulty of the gravel sectors (and especially the gravel climbs) thins out the peloton as the day goes on, and attacks from the big names thin out the race even further. There’s normally only a handful of riders left in contention by the end of the final gravel sector (if the winner hasn’t already made their winning move by then), and it’s rare to see a finish line photo with more than two riders in it. Expect the same on Saturday.
Who’s most likely to win?
It’s a stacked startlist, but two big names stand above the rest: Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ).
Both riders have won this race before – Longo Borghini in 2017, the first and only Italian (male or female) to do so; and Vollering in 2023 when she outsprinted her teammate Lotte Kopecky, in what was a truly unforgettable moment:
So how do Vollering and ELB stack up this time around? It’s hard to say.
Both riders have had a great start to the season – Vollering with a stage win and overall victory at Valenciana, and Longo Borghini with the same at the UAE Tour. Both riders have strong teams to support them. Both riders are trying to balance their ambitions in the Spring Classics with Grand Tours goals later in the year. So how do we separate the two?
Who knows. Vollering is probably the better climber but Longo Borghini is arguably more adept at going long-range in a race like this, and perhaps a more complete all-rounder. It could well come down to who has the freshest legs on that final Santa Catarina climb.
(A quick note on Longo Borghini's record for the stats-inclined: The Italian has raced Strade Bianche eight times with results of third, fourth, first, third, fifth, second, eighth, and second. Incredible consistency.)
OK, but it’s not just Vollering vs ELB, is it?
Definitely not. There’s a whole host of other riders that could (and should) be in contention right to the pointy end.
Let’s talk SD Worx-Protime, the team that’s won the last four editions. More specifically, let’s chat Anna van der Breggen. The former world champ’s return to the peloton is one of the storylines of 2025, and she’ll be there on Saturday. And she won’t just be there – she’s a former winner (2018, solo, in filthy conditions), and in six appearances at the race so far, she’s never done worse than ninth. Given the start she’s had to her first season back, there’s every reason to think Van der Breggen could again feature on Saturday. That said, it’s her first WorldTour race since September 2021 so who knows how the Dutchwoman will handle that step up in intensity.
Strade Bianche was the first WorldTour race Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceunick) ever did, back in 2023, aged 20. Even then, the multi-disciplinary star was super impressive, finishing fifth, in a ride that spoke of her great potential on the road. She’s since become a Tour de France Femmes stage winner and a genuine contender in the Classics. Expect the young Dutchwoman to go very deep into Saturday’s race too, quite possibly landing on the podium.
And speaking of multi-disciplinary stars, Visma-Lease a Bike is a team that needs to be mentioned. Much like Van der Breggen’s return, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot coming back to the road in 2025 is a big deal, and if there’s one race where the five-time cross-country MTB world champion should shine, it’s Strade Bianche. She was probably a little underwhelming at the UAE Tour – her only race of the year so far – but perhaps the Frenchwoman can bounce back this weekend.
And PFP isn’t the only off-road world champion on that team. Fem van Empel, winner of the last three cyclocross world championships, makes her Strade Bianche debut on Saturday and the 22-year-old has a lot of potential in this race.
There are kind of a lot of MTBers and CXers on the startlist, aren't there?
Yep! For obvious reasons, Strade Bianche tends to attract the off-road specialists more than any other road race all year. And there are plenty more in attendance than the ones just mentioned.
There are riders who have combined road and other disciplines in the past – like Blanka Vas for SD Worx-Protime or Silvia Persico for UAE Team ADQ – and then there are riders better known for their exploits off-road – like Steffi Häberlin for SD Worx-Protime, Mona Mitterwallner for Human Powered Health, and Annemarie Worst at Fenix-Deceuninck.
Does being a good MTBer or CX rider mean you’ll automatically do well at Strade Bianche? Of course not. But being proficient off-road certainly doesn’t hurt in a race with so much gravel.
Which other riders are worth noting?
We haven’t talked about Kasia Niewiadoma or her Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto team yet. Niewiadoma’s record at Strade Bianche is one of the most talked-about storylines in the history of the race, and for good reason. She’s raced all 10 editions of the race so far, DNFed just one, and finished top 10 in all the rest. Most notably though, she finished second three years in a row, from 2016 through 2018, and is still yet to take a win.
There are few races the reigning Tour de France Femmes champion (and former gravel world champ) would love to add to her palmares. As in the past, she’s probably only an outside chance of victory this weekend, but you can put your house on the fact that she’ll be right near the front when it counts, and that she’ll be plenty aggressive along the way.
Note too that Niewiadoma’s new teammate Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig will also be in attendance and this is a race the Dane has also been excellent at. We’re talking top 10 finishes in all seven appearances, including third in her last outing, in 2023. Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto mightn’t win on Saturday, but they’ll absolutely be visible in trying to do so.
Beyond that, keep an eye on Swiss power-monster Marlen Reusser (Movistar) in only her second appearance at the race, plus her punchy teammate Liane Lippert (seventh in 2023). Both are capable of a good result.
Lidl-Trek don’t have an out-and-out favourite, but with former winner Lizzie Deignan, Anna Henderson, Niamh Fisher-Black, Riejanne Markus, Amanda Spratt, and Lauretta Hanson, they’ve got far too many quality riders not to impact the race in some way.
Thalita de Jong (Human Powered Health) should always be on your radar, likewise Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) after her wonderful UAE Tour.
And just finally, I wouldn’t be expecting Marta Cavalli (Picnic PostNL) to win on Saturday, but boy there are a lot of people hoping she has a better year in 2025 than she has over the past couple. Fingers crossed she can start building some good momentum on home soil this weekend (for what it's worth, she was eighth in her last appearance, in 2021).
Wait, there’s another Vollering on the startlist?
Great spot! Demi Vollering’s little sister Bodine (21) has turned pro with the VolkerWessels team this year and is racing Strade Bianche for the first time this weekend. It’s the first time the sisters will line up in the same pro race. Cute!
Are there any overarching storylines from the Spring Classics we should be aware of?
At Omloop Nieuwsblad, the first of the Spring Classics, the favourites cancelled each other out and an unexpected breakaway went the distance. Don't expect the bunch to let that happen again this weekend.
Sure, Strade Bianche is a different beast anyway, and the early break is less likely to have an impact in such an attritional race (even if SD Worx-Protime DS Danny Stam reckons this year's edition suits a break more), but even still: Vollering, SD Worx-Protime, and many others missed out on Opening Weekend. They won't want to miss out again on Saturday.
Anything else we should know?
The weather is looking very pleasant, with a forecast maximum of 17 ºC (63 ºF) but it will likely be cooler than that while the women’s race is on. Crucially, there’s no rain or wind forecast at all. That'll be a disappointment to many fans, but not to most of those actually racing on Saturday.
And just finally – to help get you in the mood for Saturday's racing, be sure to look back at our gallery from the 2024 Strade Bianche. It truly is a beautiful bike race. We hope to bring you a similar gallery from this year's race, early next week.
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