Strade Bianche 2021: When is it, which teams are racing, what TV channel is showing it and who are the favourites?
What is this race and why ought to I care about it?
Strade Bianche is a novel race in the skilled calendar that has its earned place in the hearts of biking followers, regardless of solely being in existence for 14 years. While amateurs are usually discovered aping their heroes at cyclosportives or granfondos, the first Italian race of the WorldTour season actually reverses the paradigm.
Taking its lead from the big recognition of L’Eroica, the non-competitive amateur event that traverses the chalky white roads of Tuscany and requires riders to finish the occasion on retro metal bicycles, RCS Sport, organisers of the Giro d’Italia, launched Strade Bianche — then known as Monte Paschi Eroica — in October 2007 when Alexandr Kolobnev received the inaugural version of the race.
After transferring the race to March the following 12 months, Swiss classics specialist Fabian Cancellara received the first of the three Strade Bianche titles he claimed earlier than retiring in 2016. Unsurprisingly, the race has develop into a specific favorite with the classics riders, notably since its transfer to the earlier a part of the calendar — apart from final 12 months’s occasion that was moved to August on account of the coronavirus pandemic. Previous winners embody Philippe Gilbert, Michal Kwiatkowski, Zdenek Stybar, Julian Alaphilippe and Wout van Aert, whereas Moreno Moser is the sole Italian to have the race on his palmarès.
Strade Bianche earned itself WorldTour standing in 2016. The seventh version of the girls’s version takes place on the identical day as the males’s race and in 2021 shall be the first occasion of the Women’s WorldTour season.
When is Strade Bianche?
The males’s race will get below approach at 11.45am (10.45am GMT) on Saturday March 6, 2021. The girls’s race begins at 9.15am (8.15am GMT).
How lengthy is this 12 months’s race?
The Strade Bianche is simply 184 kilometres lengthy. The girls’s is 136km.
How can I watch this 12 months’s race?
Those fortunate sufficient to have subscriptions to Eurosport or GCN can comply with all the motion on both tv or the app. If you can’t watch the race dwell then you’ll be able to comply with the second half of each races proper right here. Bookmark this web page and return on the day of race for the newest updates.
What’s in it for the winner?
The winner of the males’s race will trouser a cheque to the worth of €16,000 which, by our calculations, is over 600 per cent greater than their feminine counterparts. The males’s runner-up takes house €8,000 and the rider on the third step of the podium €4,000. Here’s the breakdown . . .
With Strade Bianche being a WorldTour race, there will even be factors on provide that may go in direction of a riders’ general rankings . . .
What teams will trip at Strade Bianche?
As with all WorldTour races, every of the 19 teams that make up the top-flight of men’s professional cycling obtain an invitation and in the case of Strade Bianche all teams are contracted to race.
In addition to the WorldTour squads, Pro-Continental teams Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic additionally certified to race courtesy of final 12 months’s rankings, whereas race organisers RSC handed wildcard spots to Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, Bardiani-CSF-Faizane, Eolo-Kometa and Vini Zabu.
All 9 Women’s WorldTeam’s (Alé BTC Ljubljana, BikeExchange, Canyon-Sram, DSM, FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, Liv Racing, Movistar, SD Worx and Trek-Segafredo Women) will take part in the earlier race together with the prime six Women’s Continental teams, whereas eight wildcard spots have been handed out and so A.R. Monex, Aromitalia-Basso Bikes-Vaiano, Bepink, Born To Win G20 Ambedo, Ceratizit-WNT, Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria, Jumbo-Visma, Lotto-Soudal, Massi-Tactic, Parkhotel Valkenburg, Servetto-Makhymo-Beltrami TSA, Tibco-SVB, Top Girls Fassa Bortolo, Valcar-Travel & Service will all be in motion.
What does the startlist appear to be?
More particulars to comply with . . .
And who are the favourites in each races?
More particulars to comply with . . .
