2018 Strade Bianche
Male Team 03 Mar

Strade Bianche

184 Kilometers
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Participants list

  1. Alejandro Valverde
  2. Andrey Amador
  3. Daniele Bennati
  4. Carlos Betancur
  5. Nuno Bico
  6. Nelson Oliveira
  7. José Joaquín Rojas
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TV

Eurosport 2 will be broadcasting the final 90 minutes of the race live, starting at 2pm on Saturday.
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Timetable

The race will depart from Siena's Fortezza Medicea at 10.35am local, with the finish at Piazza del Campo expected for 3.15-3.45pm.
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Social Media

The race's official Twitter handle and hashtag are identical: @StradeBianche / #StradeBianche. Over at @Movistar_Team we will be following the Blues' performances live, while also keeping an eye on the girls competing at the Women Elite race.
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Score

The Movistar Team's got two podium finishes in the Strade Bianche: Alejandro Valverde was 3rd in 2014 -behind Michal Kwiatkowski and Peter Sagan- and 2015 -on the podium alongside Zdenek Stybar and Greg Van Avermaet-.

Route

Siena - Siena (184km)
03 March

Analysis

The 12th edition of the Strade Bianche classic -maiden WorldTour one-day event for the Movistar Team in 2018- increases its share of ‘sterrato’ sectors on the route to over one third of the race’s length: no less than 63km on dirt road on a course that is barely over 180km long.

Eleven sections are featured in a race divided into two parts. The opening phase is softer, with six long ‘sterrato’ stretches, even though there are some longer climbs, like the one to Montalcino -finish of a brutal stage in the 2010 Giro d’Italia, when rain made the gravel become mud- and the hill of Ville di Corsano (sector 2, 25km). In fact, sections five and six (Lucignano d’Asso and Pieve a Salti, 76 to 98km) are basically together and make for a long 20km of ‘sterrato’.

The second half of the race, after the village of Monteroni d’Arbia (111km), is a series of short climbs and fast descent that make the race go wild. There are two long sectors -Asciano, 121km; and the famous Monte Sante Marie, km 130 to 141-, but it’s the last three, short and uphill –Monteaperti (-24km), Colle Pinzuto (-19km) and Le Tolfe (-13km)– which often make the final selection before the finish. After those, the race goes downhill towards the city before the short, steep ramp of Santa Caterina takes the riders to the Piazza del Campo, one of the most beautiful finishes in the UCI calendar.