It does not take long for the first unpaved road to appear. It’s a gentle, flat opener of 2.1 kilometres long before sector 2 is something else entirely. The 5.8 kilometres long sterrato starts out on descent, but also features the first double digit ramps of the day.
The route then descends onto a dust road with no significant gradients, which is followed by another unremarkable sector.
The hardest sterrato of the day – in fact, the only sector with the maximum of 5 stars – moves through San Martino in Grania. The riders enter the gravel to leave it 9.5 kilometres later after a twisting climb. The sector goes up and up and down in the first part, while it’s all uphill after San Martino in Grania.
The riders meet the tarmac again in Asciano and descend towards a rolling section on smooth asphalt. The shortest sterrato of the day appears at kilometre 83. It does not exceed 800 metres, but is pepped up with double digit gradients before hitting the tarmac again in Vico d’Arbia. Hardly without any leeway the riders then enter the 2.4 kilometres long ‘Strade di Colle Pinzuto’, which starts out with a 15% ramp and keeps climbing gradually all the way until the Pinzuto summit. It’s rated 4 stars.
The illustrious Le Tolfe strip – also 4 stars – used to be the last sterrato of the Strade Bianche, but it now precedes an extra lap of 30 kilometres. Bike handling skills are essential, as the 1.1 kilometres sector opens with a short descent and closes with a ramp at 18%. The riders then continue onto a new sector, the 1.3 kilometres long ‘Strada del Castagno’.
After 14 kilometres with some challenging passes on tarmac, the 10th sector is relatively easy: 3.3 kilometres long, 2 stars. It leads back to Vico d’Arbia, where the riders re-enter the ‘Strade di Colle Pinzuto’ with its 15% ramp at the bottom and a gradual uphill continuation to the summit.
Then it’s Le Tolfe time again, with its tricky mix of a short drop and insane uphill gradients. There are 12 kilometres remaining when the riders pass the hilltop chapel in the village.
Twisting and undulating roads run back to the brutal finale in Siena. Coming off a descent the road rises false flat towards the Fontebranda Gate. The riders pass beneath it with only 900 metres to go. The road continues on paving slabs and the gradient exceeds 10% and even peaks out at 16% just before the climb flattens out.
The last 300 metres are downhill and 70 metres before the finish the route enters the Piazza del Campo.
SD Worx powerhouses Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky worked out in unison last year to bring back lone attacker Kirsten Faulkner. The duo made the catch on the steep climb into Siena before Vollering outsprinted Lotte Kopecky on the Piazza del Campo.
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Other interesting reads: race results/report and start list 2024 Strade Bianche Donne.
Strade Bianche Donne 2024: routes, profiles, more
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