Preview of Strade Bianche 2025 | Will Pidcock be able to challenge Pogacar on this brutal 213 km course?

We all vividly remember that Pogacar won the Giro, Tour, and World Championship in 2024. The Monuments in Liège and Lombardy also sparked the imagination. But after the World Championship, Pogi did the craziest thing in Strade Bianche 2024. After the organization had added an extra loop around Siena to the race, everyone thought it probably wouldn't happen on Monte Sante Marie. They were wrong: Pogacar attacked with 80 kilometers to go and was never seen again.

His daring attack from such a distance was unprecedented. It was rarely seen in cycling. And so we enjoyed every kilometer of it. Italy embraced the Slovenian even before he completed a single kilometer in the Giro. But cycling fans are hoping for a little more excitement in Saturday's edition on March 8. How long will Pogacar wait? And if he uses the Sante Marie again to break away, will anyone be there to chase him this time?

2024 Tadej Pogacar
2023 Tom Pidcock
2022 Tadej Pogacar 
2021 Mathieu van der Poel
2020 Wout van Aert
2019 Julian Alaphilippe
2018 Tiesj Benoot
2017 Michal Kwiatkowski
2016 Fabian Cancellara
2015 Zdeněk Štybar

Regardless of the criticism, the Strade Bianche organization has stuck to the 2024 plan. That means Colle Pinzuto and Le Tolfe were in the final twice rather than just once. That means more than 210 kilometers instead of just over 180 as in the race's early years. Even more important, the Monte Sante Marie, traditionally the stretch where the wheat is separated from the chaff every year, starts again at 84 kilometers from the end.

That is crucial because an attack of 50 or 80 kilometers is a world of difference. Not for Pogacar, but many will still hold their breath when the 11.5-kilometer Sante Marie is behind them. They will need to save energy for another seven of the 16 segments in the last two hours of the race.

Another characteristic of Strade Bianche is the gravel, and in 2025, there will be more of it than ever, with some 82 kilometers of unpaved roads. The first six sections already include two tough ones, with the 11.9-kilometer Torrenieri to kick things off. When we arrive at Monteaperti after 158 kilometers, we are almost at the start of the lap, which is to be completed twice.

The Colle Pinzuto (with gradients of up to 15%) and Le Tolfe (up to 18%) are extremely tough in this 30-kilometer loop. Maybe this is where Pogacar shows his skills. After the second time through Le Tolfe (where Van der Poel unleashed a devastating attack on his way to victory in 2021), we turn towards Siena, where the final climb is the steep ascent to the Piazza del Campo.

Weather:
Spring has arrived in Italy. After weeks of rain and wind, it has been sunny since Monday, and temperatures are expected to rise to under 20 degrees during the week. This is fantastic racing weather, especially since the wind will not really play a role on Saturday. Therefore, the mud on the sections will have plenty of time to dry, turning Saturday's race into a dusty affair.

Times:
Start: 05:25 AM EST
Finish: around 9:45 AM EST

Tadej Pogacar, of course, and it is unlikely that anyone will come close to challenging his status as favorite. The world champion has already won two stages, and the overall victory in the UAE Tour and Strade Bianche is the start of his busy spring classics season. We are somewhat apprehensive about how well he will do, in part because UAE Team Emirates-XRG has brought three luxury domestiques to the start, including Tim Wellens, Isaac Del Toro, and Florian Vermeersch, who could win or go for a podium place themselves.

To be perfectly honest, there is little competition because Mathieu van der Poel finds the new set-up too demanding, Wout van Aert and Primoz Roglic are on a training camp, Remco Evenepoel is recovering from injury, and Jonas Vingegaard rarely rides one-day races. However, two former winners are Tom Pidcock (2023, now for Q36.5) and Michal Kwiatkowski (2017, now INEOS Grenadiers). Both men are also in excellent form: Pidcock with stage wins and the overall victory in the AlUla Tour and a stage in the Ruta del Sol, and Kwiato with a solo win in the Clasica Jaén. Who knows, who knows...

Read more below the photo.

If we look further down the start list, there are a lot of very good riders, but will they be able to challenge Pogacar if nothing else happens to the Slovenian? Maxim Van Gils was last year's number three with Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) is number five. Looking back to 2023, in addition to winner Pidcock, the then number two is also present with Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), as well as the number five Attila Valter (Visma), number seven Pello Bilbao (also Bahrain), number eight Romain Grégoire (Groupama) and Davide Formolo (Movistar), who has already finished in the top ten in several editions and even finished second in 2020.

All these names are now contenders because Strade Bianche often features the same names at the front, and all these riders are in top form this year. But we are not done yet because another strong group of riders describe Strade Bianche as their favorite race and have made it a real goal. Consider Quinn Simmons at Lidl-Trek, (former) mountain bikers Alan Hatherly and Joe Blackmore at Jayco-AlUla Israel-Premier Tech, Ben Healy at EF, and Marc Hirschi who will finally get the chance to try it himself with his new team Tudor, out of the spotlight of Pogacar at UAE.

But that is not all. Strade Bianche is so unpredictable that any good rider can suddenly be at the front on a good day. Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, for example. And what about Astana, who has two strong cards to play in Alberto Bettiol and man-in-form Christian Scaroni? Andreas Kron (now Uno-X) has performed well on the gravel roads. Visma also has Ben Tulett and youngster Jorgen Nordhagen. What can Jan Tratnik do at Red Bull? Add Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) to that list.

Finally, we should mention the pure climbers such as Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step), David Gaudu (Groupama), Richard Carapaz (EF), and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto), all of whom we have already seen climbing extremely well. One of them stands out, making the battle behind extremely interesting. And if Pogacar unexpectedly has an off day or runs into bad luck, then it could very well be one of those huge groups of contenders that take the win. No race is as unpredictable as Strade Bianche, right?

Top favorite: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
Outsiders: Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Marc Hirschi (Tudor), Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek)
Long shots: Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Ben Tulett (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates)

Like in previous editions, the organization has planned the women's race before and not after the men's. That means we will only switch to the men's race after the women have finished, at around 8 AM EST. By then, the men will have already been on the road for over 2.5 hours, so let's hope they will save the spectacle until then. Eurosport will broadcast the race live on Eurosport 1 and HBO Max.