In the Tuscan afternoon of March 6, 2021, countless cycling professionals and cycling enthusiasts had their suspicions confirmed: the Strade Bianche is one of the largest races in the world.
They had seen Mathieu van der Poel make an attack on the last and steepest gravel section of the day (18 percent) that his bicycle computer could hardly handle. Not only that, he leapt from arguably the strongest and most versatile group to ever lead a cycling race, made up of Tour and Giro winners and multiple world champions.
In the last kilometer Van der Poel squeezed an even more powerful attack on the Via Santa Caterina, the ridiculously steep alley to the heart of Siena, the Piazza del Campo, almost extinct due to corona measures, known for the short horse race that has been held there twice since 1287. is held annually, the Palio. Moments later, Van der Poel let his cry of joy blare over the empty Campo.
Sixth monument?
His victory opened a real debate about the question: is the Strade Bianchi the sixth cycling monument?
With this, the race that will only be ridden for the fifteenth time on Saturday, would join Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy. Those are the five ‘monuments’. The term dates from the 1990s and is actually a marketing invention of Hein Verbruggen.
The then boss of the international cycling union UCI succeeded in promoting the five classics as a kind of outdoor category. There were no objective requirements that a monument had to meet. The similarity between the five is that they are older than a century and have a length between 240 and 300 kilometers.
The Strade Bianche measures ‘just’ 180 kilometers. As cobbled sections define Paris-Roubaix (1896 and 257 kilometres), Tuscany is all about the ‘white roads’ from which the course takes its name. More than a third of the route, 63 kilometers, is unpaved, spread over eleven strips.
It is difficult to see on TV how difficult it is to cycle over that ‘strade bianche’, as it turned out during a summer exploration of the 11-kilometer-long stretch of five, called the Lucignano d’Asso, or the SP71. The gravel paths strewn with thousands of pebbles like marbles are full of potholes and stray boulders. Difficult to avoid in a peloton that fills the entire width of the sometimes narrow path. Now and then a washboard of ripples passes under the wheels, applied there by agricultural vehicles that have crossed the farm track in the rain.
Anyone who wants to ride as fast as possible over the unpaved white paths with a racing bike needs guts, steering skills, concentration and a touch of hubris to bring this to a successful conclusion. And luckily, because a flat tire or worse is never far away – the team manager’s car is. And then the gravel road also goes steeply up and down with deep narrow channels on both sides for water drainage.
Always climbing
‘But it’s not the gravel that makes it so tough’, says Niki Terpstra, ‘it’s the climbs and the total height difference.’ In 2007 Terpstra was the only Dutch participant in the very first Strade Bianche. At that time it was still called the Monte Paschi Eroica – named after sponsor Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world (1472), followed by the Italian word for ‘heroic’.
The latter certainly applied to the way Terpstra flew in. ‘I was a first-year professional, I didn’t know what to expect and I dived into that game like mad. After a hundred kilometers I was worn out. I had misjudged how heavy it was. It turned out to be very up and down on the gravel, I had to climb a lot more than I thought. That’s because those white roads go straight over the mountains, the asphalt roads go around them. It’s one of those climbs where, if you just don’t have the right legs, you’re parked halfway.’
The reckless Terpstra, later winner of the monuments Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, was not the only one who misjudged the more than 3,000 vertical meters that can be conquered each year in the relatively short Strade Bianche: he was one of the 74 dropouts of the 116 started riders. “I thought it was a really great match. Tuscany is so beautiful, also for cycling for fun. And then that arrival in Siena! Riders are very happy to come to this race, the organization does not have to lobby for that.’
A year later, when the riders were chatting before the start of the semi-classic Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Terpstra was full of praise for the new course with all those unpaved kilometres. He tipped first-year professional Martijn Maaskant. ‘Niki said: that is a very nice course for you,’ says Maaskant. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
Be careful
Maaskant, retired cyclist and now working as a muskrat catcher for the Brabant water board Rivierenland, followed Terpstra’s advice and came fourth in the second edition of the Strade Bianche. ‘If I had studied the finish, I could have finished third. Well, I was allowed to come on the podium as the best youngster.’
What does he remember about driving the white roads? ‘You can’t get out of the saddle up, because then your rear wheel will slip. And down you go fast and if you have to take a bend at speed on those loose stones, then you have to pay attention, you have less grip. You have to be able to steer well, estimate the bends well, but a rider in shape can do that.’
Maaskant was the best Dutchman for three years in a row. With his fourth place in 2008 he was the best Dutchman until Van der Poel won last year. In the year that Tom Dumoulin won the Giro, 2017, he finished fifth and with the ninth place of Wout Poels in 2014, all Dutch top-10 placings have been mentioned in this race.
Maaskant recalls that what makes Strade Bianche so special is that there is a battle almost from the start. ‘That’s because the first strip comes after 18 kilometres. It is driven very hard to be the first to turn it up, so that you do not end up behind falls. The climbs on the first gravel sections pull everything further apart, creating groups early in the race that can’t come back. That is why there are many dropouts every year, often more than half.’
Fabian Cancellara won in 2008 , Alessandro Ballan was second. ‘These are big names’, says Maaskant, ‘that helps the status of monument’. Reigning world champion Julian Alaphilippe is the main advocate of monument status for the Strade Bianche. He won the 2019 edition. After his victory, Van der Poel spoke of a ‘race that I really wanted to win’. ‘I dare to put it next to the other monuments, because the course is so unique.’
More status every year
The status of the Strade Bianche has moved quickly, a race currently in the third category with only 300 points for the winner for the world ranking. Whoever wins an established monument will receive 500 points, although this also applies to the Amstel Gold Race, Gent-Wevelgem and the two Grand Prix of Québec and Montréal. For example, the Walloon Arrow yields 400 points.
Former rider Koen de Kort, now responsible for the equipment at his old cycling team Trek-Segafredo, speaks of a ‘snowball effect’ from the car on the way to Tuscany to explain how the Strade Bianche could become so big so quickly.
“It looks nice on TV, which makes sponsors want to be at that game. They take their guests with them and then as a team you want to look good with strong riders. This way you get big names in the top 10 and on the podium, making the race even more attractive for even bigger names and the Strade Bianche gaining even more status. And so on.’
According to De Kort, the monument status has already been achieved. “Although this is a young race with not much history yet, it has the impetus of a race that has been around for a long time. ‘Strade’ really has everything: Italy, views, wine region, unpaved roads, battle, beautiful in good weather, but even more epic in bad weather.’
De Kort drove once over the white roads in the Giro stage. ‘A great misery. I had to deliver the GC riders at the front at the first gravel section. So I had already given up quite a bit when I ended up between the cars behind the peloton. I couldn’t see anything anymore because of the dust, really extreme.’
It is precisely this extreme that makes the Tuscan hell trip a classic, according to De Kort. ‘It’s something special, you don’t see it often, just like the cobblestones of Roubaix. This is a very beautiful cycling race on roads that have been there for centuries. It is not made, it is as it is, befitting a monument of this time. Add to that the rapidly increasing popularity of gravel bicycles. This is the ultimate gravel race, no other race comes close.’
The contenders
Even with the absence of former winners Mathieu van der Poel (2021) and Wout van Aert (2020), contender Tom Pidcock and outsider Tom Dumoulin, there is a strong field of participants at the start of the fifteenth Strade Bianche on Saturday at a quarter to twelve. The winner of 2019 and number two of last year, Julian Alaphilippe, is a favorite for many to succeed Van der Poel, who is recovering from back problems. Although the world champion does not appear to be in top form yet, he does have a strong team, Quick-Step, behind him.
Two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar was in the exceptionally strong leading group last year, came seventh and has resolved to win every race on the cycling calendar. The Slovenian is not only a cyclist, he has also won the monuments Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy in his short career.
Ineos leader Pidcock has fallen out due to a stomach virus, but the rich team has the Olympic champion Richard Carapaz from Ecuador on hand. At Jumbo-Visma, the ‘Strade’ did not fit into Van Aert’s program and Dumoulin dropped out due to a corona infection, but the Dutch team also has an outspoken contender in the ranks: Tiesj Benoot won the heavy Strade Bianche of 2018 due to rain.
Annemiek van Vleuten?
The women will ride the Strade Bianche for the eighth time on Saturday morning. In the past four editions, a Dutch woman has won. Two-time winner Annemiek van Vleuten (2019, 2020) is the biggest contender to relieve Chantal van den Broek-Blaak. He won last year through strong team play against SD Worx and shook off the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini on the Via Santa Caterina. The 2017 winner is also now a favourite, just like reigning Dutch gravel champion Demi Vollering and the (former) cyclocross world champions Marianne Vos and Lucinda Brand.