Strada Bianche Eroica Pro

sy

Strade Bianche a relatively new but popular semi classic is on this Saturday. 50kms of dirt roads instead of cobbles with lots of short hills make this a challenging race (especially if it rains!!) Last year Kwiatowski beat Sagan in the tough uphill finish into Siena Cancellara has won twice and its his first venture in the Spring classics so interesting to see how he is going. Both Sagan and Kwiatowski are riding as are Valverde, Gilbert. Stybar. Stannard. Vanmarcke, Van Avermaet, Nibali, Lars Boom, Cataldo, Hesjedal, Cunego. Visconti (might be a winner in there somewhere!! I think Peter Kennaugh is riding very well for Sky, worth an outside bet and young Adam Yates might be worth watching too. Sagan Cancellara Kwiatowski Valverdi and Van Avermaet to fight it out for the win. Think its live on Eurosport

sy

If it rains expect something like this!! The epic stage 7 of the 2010 Giro into Montalcino which included quite a few kms of the dirt roads in Strade Bianche. If you haven't seen it then here is the last 20kms. One of my all time favourite stages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkjSLKuqmmg

el tel

the Strade Bianchi is a great race. I reckon at about 20km from the finish, the lead bunch of 20-30 will look at Cancellara, start dicking about and a couple will go for it, and from there will be the winner.

Or Ian Stannard will win as Sky DS said it's ‘too hard’ for him.

One think that srikes me about the Strade Bianchi is how ugly the outskirts of Siena is.

pelevin

What I saw of last year was a great race so hopefully will catch some of this later. Sagan to get his season moving perhaps though there's no shortage of class riders obviously.

Lusk_Doyle

Typical Eurosport. Coverage starts and within a minute they take an ad break! Hopefully that will mean an uninterrupted business end of the race!

Zyzz

"Now for a commercial break.."

Not even broadcasting for a minute :rolleyes:

ednwireland

whoops that took ages to post. great race though

dastardly00

I never knew until now that the Slovakian and Czech national road race championships were held in the same race.

Darkglasses

Garmindale jersey doesn't look so bad on tv. Such a pretty race though!

Darkglasses

dastardly00 wrote: »

I never knew until now that the Slovakian and Czech national road race championships were held in the same race.

Yeah, strange that.

dastardly00

The combination of Sagan's national champion jersey, his strangely coloured helmet, the Saxo team coloured-bike results in an ugly mess.

ROK ON

Anyone else having issues with Eurosport player. Won't let me watch.

pelevin

Leaving aside Astana controversy, shows why for a lot of people Nibali really strikes a chord. Genuine Grand Tour contender obviously, has won all 3 GTs, & here mixing it with the likes of Sagan & Cancellara in their kind of race. Much broader than the likes of Froome & Contador in terms of traditional all-terrain racer.

dastardly00

Orica are doing a serious amount of work to bring back the lead group.

ednwireland

ROK ON wrote: »

Anyone else having issues with Eurosport player. Won't let me watch.

working perfect for me

dastardly00

Sagan dropped.

dastardly00

Stybar is looking super strong.

dastardly00

It's going to take a lot of effort from Cancellara to get back to Valverde, Stybar etc.

MPFG

Valverde looks so strong ..and he can sprint the climb...But I hope its someone else

happytramp

Please let it be someone other than Valverde.

dastardly00

happytramp wrote: »

Please let it be someone other than Valverde.

I think Stybar is the only rider strong enough to beat Valverde today.

RobertKK

Watching this since 1.30pm

Looks good for Valverde.

RobertKK

I always think of Saint Catherine of Siena when I hear Siena, she was was from a large family, 2nd youngest of 26 children.
She put the place on the map.

Going for Valverde still...

dastardly00

Looks like it's going to come down to the final climb between Valverde, Stybar and Van Avermaet.

I'm going for Stybar!

RobertKK

ValVerde gone.

Stybar has it.

RobertKK

dastardly00 wrote: »

Looks like it's going to come down to the final climb between Valverde, Stybar and Van Avermaet.

I'm going for Stybar!

You win.

Enjoyed that.

dastardly00

I'm amazed how easily Valverde cracked.

neris

Good finish. Surprised valverde got dropped so easily

pelevin

Stybar shows you're never going to be too far wrong plumping for a QuickStep rider in the one-days.

RobertKK

dastardly00 wrote: »

I'm amazed how easily Valverde cracked.

He had nothing on that final climb alright.

Nicolas Roche in the Paris-Nice, no doubt the support act for Bradley Wiggins.

MPFG

RobertKK wrote: »

He had nothing on that final climb alright.

Nicolas Roche in the Paris-Nice, no doubt the support act for Bradley Wiggins.

Support act for Richie Porte


So glad Valverde cracked there ....

And wonder what happened to Sagan...went very early ...he usually can be there till the end ??? Tinkov no doubt will be shouting later

pelevin

RobertKK wrote: »

He had nothing on that final climb alright.

Nicolas Roche in the Paris-Nice, no doubt the support act for Bradley Wiggins.

There is doubt! Porte is supposed to be Sky's team leader.

pelevin

MPFG wrote: »

Support act for Richie Porte


So glad Valverde cracked there ....

And wonder what happened to Sagan...went very early ...he usually can be there till the end ??? Tinkov no doubt will be shouting later

WHat happened him is he didn't have the legs. Must be pretty worrying for his team all right unless they're timing to perfection his arriving at full form for later in the month. With the amount of competition now in his kinds of races, looks the era of Sagan dominance is a lot less probable than perceived a couple of years back.

Lusk_Doyle

dastardly00 wrote: »

I'm amazed how easily Valverde cracked.

I'm delighted how easily he cracked. The cheat.

TheBlaaMan

Yeah.

ABV

Anyone-but-Valverde.

dastardly00

Just read this about Stybar. He had to get emergency dental treatment yesterday before the race:

The former world cyclo-cross world champion had a difficult winter after a nasty crash at the Eneco Tour left him with a fractured jaw and without his front upper teeth. He also suffered a separated shoulder in an October cyclo-cross race, forcing him to miss his usual programme of cross races in January.

He posted a photo of himself at a Tuscan dentist on Friday and was proud to have won Strade Bianche at the first attempt.


“I had to go to a dentist, but the pain was nothing like that of the race,” he joked after the race winner’s press conference. “I could feel my stitches under my temporary bridge coming out after my training ride and if I’d lost my temporary teeth, it would have been a big disaster, I would have missed a lot of races. So I had to sort it out. Fortunately, it didn’t affect my race.”