If the cobbles weren’t enough bump and grind for the Classics riders, the pro peloton will descend upon gravel roads this Saturday in Strade Bianche. The race, founded during the 2000s, has fast become a fan favourite due to its stunning location, steep climbs and testing gravel roads known as sterrato in Italian. Unofficially touted as ‘the sixth Monument’, Strade Bianche has caught headlines in recent years thanks to an illustrious list of victors that includes Grand Tour winners and Classics titans alike.
The men’s reigning champion Tadej Pogačar will be back to defend his title. Last year, he claimed the victory in dominant fashion, attacking away with over 80km to go. The men’s race will feature two other former winners: Tom Pidcock and Michał Kwiatkowski. Currently, Pogačar sits as the overwhelming bookies’ favourite, with odds as short as 1/4.
Unlike her rainbow jersey counterpart, Lotte Kopecky will pass on the chance to defend her title. In her absence, 2023 winner Demi Vollering and recent UAE Tour victor Elisa Longo Borghini will clash for the first time in the 2025 Classics season. Alongside them, two former Strade Bianche winners will be on the startline in Siena: Lizzie Deignan and Anna van der Breggen.
James York
Everything points towards a rainbow jersey victory in Siena this weekend, the first in the history of the men’s race.
Tadej Pogačar has won this race on two occasions – 2022 and 2024 – both from long-range solo moves. Last year, he dared to attack from over 80km to go, an ambitious tactic that would ultimately set the tone for his phenomenal 2024 season.
The Slovenian will be backed up by a squad of loyal domestiques at UAE Team Emirates XRG. Tim Wellens, Domen Novak, Filippo Baroncini and Isaac Del Toro lined up alongside Pogačar at last year’s race and will feature on the roster once again in 2025. The young Mexican Del Toro really stood out in that occasion. With a similar team and similar form in his legs to last year, Pogačar will start as the out-and-out favourite on Saturday.
Vuelta Andalucia
Another former winner, Tom Pidcock will be looking to add a second Strade Bianche title to his growing palmarès. His record has grown considerably since leaving Ineos Grenadiers in the winter. In the first two months of the season alone, he’s taken three stage wins as well as his first GC title on the senior level.
Pidcock’s prowess on rougher surfaces will come in handy on a profile like this. The double Olympic mountain bike champion will be tough to follow on the gritty descents – as he demonstrated in 2023 when he attacked for glory on a downhill sterrato sector. Pidcock’s team support may be weaker this year than it was in 2023, with just the in-form Fabio Christen for help in the closing stages.
I don’t think the Yorkshireman quite has the engine to match Pogačar, but a podium finish shouldn’t be out of reach. If he does so, this will be Q36.5’s biggest WorldTour result to date, perhaps justifying a Grand Tour wildcard later in the year.
The evergreen Michał Kwiatkowski is a two-time winner of this race. The Pole burst onto the Classics scene in 2014 when he attacked away from Peter Sagan on the steep climb up to Siena to take his first headline win. A few years later, he added a second victory in a rainy 2017 edition while riding for Team Sky.
Kwiatkowski could be a beneficiary from Pidcock’s Ineos exit. The former world champion can now take on leadership duties once again after a few years as a luxury domestique. His experience will also come into play, having been at the pointy end of Strade Bianche for over a decade now. His race craft has been displayed several times, leading to a steady haul of impressive victories, including a win already this year at the gravel Classica Jaén, the 2022 Amstel Gold Race and a stage of the 2023 Tour de France.
He doesn’t have the same kick he had ten years ago, but he is still able to pull off a long-range solo move. He’s already got a win under his belt in 2025 and his form seems to be in good stead.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)
James York
Ben Healy will spearhead a talented EF Education-EasyPost line-up on Saturday. Alongside Richard Carapaz, adopted Italian Mikkel Honoré and Irish youngster Archie Ryan, Healy’s team is filled with wildcards to look out for this weekend.
EF’s Irish leader is unafraid to make a daring move. If he’s on a good day, expect him to be off the front by the 50km to go marker, perhaps hoping to secure a podium place while the group flails behind. Healy will hope to avoid a sprint at the end, so an attack may be necessary, no matter how fruitless they may seem.
He has only raced twice this year and failed to reach the top ranks of the standings at both races, however his season really begins from now as he gears up for the spring Classics.
Lidl-Trek
Czech all-rounder Mathias Vacek has had an impressive opening to 2025. The Lidl-Trek rider impressed in the early-season stage races, having led the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana for a while, before making his mark at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
As a real jack of all trades, Vacek could be someone to look out for this Saturday. He put pressure on the bunch up the Kapelmuur at Omloop last weekend and has what it takes to shake things up on Le Tolfe’s gravelled slopes.
Lidl-Trek have last year’s third place finisher Toms Skujiņš for support as well as Quinn Simmons, who has always gone well here. And don’t count out Danish supertalent Albert Philipsen, who started the 2025 calendar in sparkling form at the Tour Down Under. Philipsen has been a cyclocross, road and mountain biking world champion at the junior level, so there are no questions to be asked of his bike handling skills.
Antonio Baixauli/Getty Images
Making his WorldTour debut for Tudor Pro Cycling, Marc Hirschi will be a man to look out for this weekend. After a gold rush toward the end of 2024, the Swiss rider has started 2025 in equally positive fashion. In four of his five race days in 2025 so far, he has finished inside the top ten. This includes a win early on in the season in a Valencian one-day race.
The Swiss rider’s record in Strade Bianche is a little hit or miss. He’s never finished anywhere near the top ten during his three participations. In all fairness, two were during his time as a youngster with Sunweb, while the other was during his tenure as a domestique for Pogačar.
With Tudor right on the cusp of a big Grand Tour wildcard this year, Hirschi will be relied upon for a big result in Siena. Without Alaphilippe on the roster the pressure is on for Hirschi to deliver.
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Christian Scaroni has been on red-hot form since the start of the season. Statistically speaking, he is the top ranked rider of 2025 so far, having accrued the most amount of UCI points out of any rider this year.
The Italian has already two race wins to his name and he’s taken a GC victory at the two-day Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var as well as reaching the podium at a total of four one-day races. The most recent came earlier this week at the Trofeo Laigueglia where he hung onto the wheel of UAE superstar Juan Ayuso to finish in second place.
XDS-Astana have been on a winning streak in 2025 so far, climbing up the UCI rankings into the top bracket within the opening months of the year. Scaroni has been the talisman so far, but Alberto Bettiol and new signing Diego Ulissi could help to steady the ship this weekend and bring some vital points in their fierce relegation battle.
James York
Although Tadej Pogačar is the overwhelming favourite, the podium spots are quite hard to predict. Perhaps a domestique could slip under the radar and make the podium. Think of UAE Team Emirates XRG’s Tim Wellens, Lidl-Trek’s Quinn Simmons or Visma-Lease a Bike’s Attila Valter.
Groupama-FDJ have a strong chance of making the podium with either Valentin Madouas or Romain Grégoire. The more experienced Madouas previously made the podium here back in 2023, while the younger Grégoire has started his 2025 season in flying form with a win in the Rhône valley last weekend.
Strade Bianche has always favoured GC riders. In this regard, Lennart Van Eetvelt, Filippo Zana, Max Poole and Kévin Vauquelin all have a shot of making the top ten. I’d watch Vauquelin especially. He’s been on decent form since the beginning of the season and is looking to make a strong impression during his final year at Arkéa-B&B Hotels.
In this vein, Basque rider Pello Bilbao could be a good bet to reach the podium. He has been consistent in Strade Bianche over the years, having finished in fifth, seventh and tenth in recent editions. Following this trajectory, he could crack the top three on Saturday.
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Vollering won Strade Bianche in strange circumstances in 2023. After racing alongside a loose horse on the course, the Dutchwoman was pitted against her teammate Lotte Kopecky when the two came into the finishing straight in Siena.
Now freed by SD Worx and benefitting from the absent Kopecky, Vollering will be the favourite on Saturday. The FDJ-Suez leader missed the mark at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – as did all the favourites there – but she showed glimpses of form at the early season stage races in Spain. She defeated her former teammate Anna van der Breggen there, but she’s yet to face Classics rival Elisa Longo Borghini in 2025.
Steadied by a strong arsenal of team support, Vollering will have a good chance to open her 2025 WorldTour account at Strade Bianche this weekend. It will also give her the first chance to lead the squad’s trident alongside Évita Muzic and Juliette Labous.
James York
Puck Pieterse made an impressive debut at Strade Bianche last year. She used her off-road expertise to sail into the top ten in Siena.
This year, she’s matured and knows what to expect. She’s been quite ambitious in interviews on the build-up to the race, so she’s evidently hoping for a better result in 2025. The Dutch rider has what it takes to win Strade Bianche, especially given her strong kick and exceptional bike handling skills.
Her Fenix-Deceuninck squad is also well-balanced to help support her aspirations, particularly Yara Kastelijn. It’ll be hard for the team to rival SD Worx, Canyon-SRAM and FDJ-Suez, however their final card is certainly a strong one.
James York
Since moving to UAE Team ADQ, Elisa Longo Borghini has become a more elusive rider on race startlines. The Italian has only ridden one race this year at the UAE Tour. Unsurprisingly she won the race in dominant form, claiming a solo win up the Jebel Hafeet en route to claiming the race leader’s red jersey.
Longo Borghini’s calendar is going to be more stripped back this year. She will skip some major cobbled Classics in favour of GC goals later in the season, notably the Giro and Tour. Her fine-tuned programme will, therefore, place more emphasis on the few Classics chosen, starting with Strade Bianche. It’s not too dissimilar of a tactic to Tadej Pogačar on the men’s side.
The Italian champion has started Strade Bianche on eight occasions. She’s reached the top ten on all of those rides, even taking the win back in 2017. UAE Team ADQ will be hoping for their new signing to step onto the podium once more, especially after a particularly dominant team performance at the UAE Tour in February.
A.S.O./Thomas Maheux
Much like Longo Borghini, Kasia Niewiadoma has been a perennial fixture inside the top ten in Siena. She’s cracked the top ten on nine times of asking, making her one of the most consistent Strade Bianche competitors this weekend.
The reigning Tour de France Femmes champion has had a low profile start to 2025. She was off the mark at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana last month and she was fairly anonymous at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last weekend. Will she have it in her to bounce back at Strade Bianche?
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig will be here to support Niewiadoma in her first Classic for the team. The Dane has a strong conversion rate here, having finished inside the top ten on six occasions. Her form has been patchy over the past year, but she’ll likely have a clear-cut role as a domestique this weekend.
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Now in the pink of EF-Oatly-Cannondale, French rider Cédrine Kerbaol was a stand-out rider of 2024. Her results in one-day races were impressive and her descending ability carried her to a career-first Tour de France Femmes stage.
Kerbaol was visible earlier this year in Mallorca, launching a characteristically ambitious move in the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx. She then rode a solid UAE Tour, but now is her time to shine. The Breton will be hoping to hone her form ahead of Trofeo Binda and Milan-San Remo, two races that she’ll surely be targeting this year.
EF also have another card to play in Noemi Rüegg. The Swiss rider was on incredible form back in January when she took the overall title at the Tour Down Under and a third place at the one-day Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Luca Bettini/SprintCyclingAgency/UAE Tour Women
Kim Le Court had a terrific 2024. She picked up her first Grand Tour stage victory at the Giro d’Italia and she spent most of the year close to the top ten in stage races and Classics.
She’s picked up where she left off and began 2025 in strong form. She surprised many by climbing onto the overall podium at the UAE Tour last month, however the Classics are where she comes into her own.
Le Court is strong enough to make it over the climbs and she’s ridden well in cobbled races in the past. This mix should suggest that she’ll have what it takes to contend for the podium on the dusty roads of Tuscany.
James York
We can’t omit SD Worx from any list winners’ discussions. The Dutch superteam is missing Kopecky this year, but instead brings Anna van der Breggen and Blanka Vas. The young Hungarian will be one to watch. She’s no stranger to rougher roads, having starred in the world’s biggest cyclocross and mountain bike races already during her young career. With that youthful vim, she might get the upper hand over the 2018 Strade Bianche champion Van der Breggen.
Elsewhere, Visma-Lease a Bike suffer a similar dilemma. The young Fem van Empel will be hoping to mirror the efforts of cyclocross colleagues Van Aert, Van der Poel and Pidcock and go for glory herself. She’ll have to balance her own aspirations alongside veteran Pauline Ferrand-Prévot who – much like Van der Breggen – is making a comeback to road cycling.
If you’re hungry for more names, here are some to consider: Marlen Reusser, Mavi García, Lianne Lippert, Antonia Niedermaier, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Niamh Fisher-Black. Hopefully, we’ve got the winner namechecked here somewhere.
Tags: ClassicsDemi VolleringTadej PogačarTom Pidcock
