Strada Bianche 2019

One of my favorite races of the year. Same course as last year I think. 184km of which 63 are dirt roads.



I think Stybar or Alaphillipe look good for this. Benoot is racing having crashed last week but no Bardet this year despite a strong finish last year he's doing Paris-Nice.

Mens race at 1pm on ES2

Womens race on ES2 at 11:30 so it'll have commentary, and it's hard look passed Anna Van der Breggen again for this. Personally I'd like to see someone not Dutch win

TheBlaaMan

One of the highlights of the year - hopefully. It will be a dry and warm race this year, without the rain of last year so it could be a faster even tougher race. The winner of this one is never undeserved and with Deucuninik Quickstep in such good form so far this week, they have the ability to control this race and be there at the end with a strongman to take the win. That said, there will surely be a strong performance from Greg van Avermaet based on his form in Omloop, where he was probably the strongest, but tactically weaker than Stybar. Nico Roche is leading ? Sunweb, Geraint Thomas is Sky's man for the day and Wout van Aert leads Jumbo Visma...... Should be great!

GVA for the win....

Hopefully I'll get back from a spin in time to see some of the womens finale too....

dastardly00

It's a pity Eurosport are not showing more live coverage

I knew Nico was riding but didn't spot he could be leading the team. He certainly has the lowest number at 171 which would indicate team leader status usually now I look.

Start list http://www.cyclingfever.com/editie.html?detp=view&_ap=startlijst&editie_idd=MjkyMzY=

EDIT: Fun fact - Riders who win three Strade Bianche titles have a sector of gravel road named after them, so given the race is so young only Fabian Cancellara has one so far.

Steve SilverMint

Really looking forward to this one, it's a great race. Forecast to be dry.

Quick Step riders seem to be the favored for tomorrow. I'd like to see Wout van Aert go one better and keep on pedaling this year. He put in some effort last time out.

I think Eddie Dunbar might be riding as Moscon is involved and he's been doing a good job when supporting him. Just checked after posting, no Eddie.

wirelessdude01

Steve SilverMint wrote:

I think Eddie Dunbar might be riding as Moscon is involved and he's been doing a good job when supporting him.

AHH isn't Eddie out of action at the moment?

neris

https://twitter.com/ukcyclingexpert/status/1104335355082428416?s=19

Only 15km to go in the womens race, group of 12 clear. Vos and AVDB there from the looks of it.

Eamonnator

Just watching the end of the women's race, they seem to be very clean.
No dust or gravel on them at all.

Eamonnator

The woman, who was 2nd, Annika Langvad, is a 5 times Mountainbike XC and Marathon World Champion.
She's also a qualified dentist.

Just looking at the forks on Diego Rosa's pinarello there, they look unusual in how they curve.

neris

This is gonna be fun 1km left

neris

Fugelsang looked to slow up big time into that last corner

godtabh

Crap. I got my timings wrong and missed the end

Eamonnator

Deleted User wrote: »

Just looking at the forks on Diego Rosa's pinarello there, they look unusual in how they curve.

I'm guessing, he was on a Pinarello Dogma F10

https://granfondo-cycling.com/pinarello-dogma-f10-review/

Raam

Must be one of the best final 1km of any race ever. Guess MSR comes close.

You'd know WvA was cyclocross lad, no pure road cyclist would acknowledge 3rd place crossing the line like he did and it's great to see, only wished he'd the legs to pass the other 2 and say gone.

buffalo

How the Race was won: https://cyclocosm.com/2019/03/how-the-race-was-won-strade-bianche-2019/

TheBlaaMan

buffalo wrote: »

How the Race was won: https://cyclocosm.com/2019/03/how-the-race-was-won-strade-bianche-2019/

Who the Paddy in the hat?