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OK, so it'll have to be be Eurosport but it's Strade Bianche, my old chums !!
Last year's was a great watch; hopefully this one'll live up to that. (They look to be televising an hour of the cissy girl race too, for international birds week or whatever)
I wonder if the girls will catch the guys this week.
scheduling suggests they've had the good sense to set 'em off in front 😉
(or we're going to watch the roll-out)
Going to be a fast race today. Hardpack and dry, should be good for some sweat stained dusty faces at the end.
Best race in the whole calendar IMO, it’s taken over from the Tour of Lombardia (just) and has a similar vibe to it.
WvE or Stybar, could be Oss if he’s in it..
👍🤠
Only on for 90 minutes?
yeah, not full coverage anywhere that I know of (or STEEPHILL knows of
live text feeds if you're a total addict and maybe a radio commentary (edit: though I suspect that's clickbaity adware and not a geniune live commentary) if you download some app via cycling news
(BB, who's WvE ?)
(BB, who’s WvE ?)
I'm assuming its a typo and it should be WvA, Wout van Aert?
Difficult to call (Men's & Women's races) as the race is so unpredicatable. Twitter live feed is showing the Women all together again now, they've done 4 of the 8 gravel sectors so far.
Deservedly now known as the "6th monument" it's a great course in a beautiful place having ridden the 200km L'eroica a few times so know the course well. TV coverage doesn't really do it justice as to how hard it is and most race-winning breaks go just after Asciano / Mte Sante Marie with 50km to go - on L'eroica the majority or rider walk up it.
Cverage on EuroSport 2 now - the Women's race has been much faster than anticipated so they've picked it up with only about 12km to go.
Well she smashed that last climb. Cheers for the heads up OP.
Well this is just making me want to visit Siena...
My cat is called Siena, based on the pleasure of a motorbike holiday there many years ago... riding the SB route has been on my must do one day list for a while now
I’m assuming its a typo and it should be WvA, Wout van Aert?
Indeed, typo.. probs my fat fingers 💁♂️
well that was quite a finish, never seems as epic in the dry but good close action
Can I go and ride in Tuscany please?
Can I go and ride in Tuscany please?
L'eroica is a permanently marked route, 200km with about 50km of sterrato / white roads - it is glorious cycling country with relatively little traffic.
The event is October has a great atmosphere - the town of Gaiole becomes a celebration of old bikes. You can either pick up energy drink and food at the stops or enjoy a glass of vino (or two), some cheese and ham. Tried a couple of glasses of Grappa too!
If you wanted to watch something muddy you should have come to see the Strade Bianche di Essex this morning! 😀
Pretty awesome that Annika Langvad podiumed - an mtb’er, brilliant.
I had a fantastic pizza for lunch then wandered down the street in time to see Alaphilippe, Fuglsang and WvA fly up the steep bit in Siena faster than I ride on the flat. Riding the sportive tomorrow - brought my gravel bike but seeing all the Italians on their lurid, 23mm-wheeled racers now I'm not sure that 30km of white roads will make enough of a difference! Anyway, will be fun.
@corroded.
Please let us know how you got on. I'm down to do it next year. Paris Roubaix this year, and yes I'm using my gravel bike!
Loved it. Really well organised, Siena is a great city and we chose where to stay and eat well. The ride is great: my Grade was ideal. All the steep climbs are on white roads or cobbles so the extra traction and the slightly lower gearing meant I ruled the climbs! I started at the very back (beginner error - I arrived at the start 25mins early and it was already full) so it was congested at first but thinned our eventually. Anyway, you can see the route easily enough - it’s not overly tough, at least compared to Paris-Roubaix! Coming up the last climb into Piazza del Campo is definitely a memorable moment.
Oh and in terms of bikes at Strade Bianche I’d say the ratio of Italians on road bikes with comically narrow tyres and loud graphics to bikes with 30mm tyres was about 50:1 but the latter had the better choice of lines. Definitely take the gravel bike to Paris-Roubaix - far quicker and safer on the cobbles.