Strade Bianche 2022 LIVE - Chantal van den Broek-Blaak out to defend title as SD Worx boast ominous line-up

Stay tuned for live text comments from Becky Hart Ad/> WHO IS RACING STRADE BIANCHE? Strade BianchePidcock withdraws from Strade Bianche with stomach virus13 HOURS AGO Defending champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak will feature for a super-strong Team SD Worx alongside teammates Lotte Kopecky, Demi Vollering and Ashley Moolman, while the 2019 and 2020 winner Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) will hope to build on her Omloop Het Nieuwsblad triumph from last weekend. Another Dutch star, Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), will hope to crack the top five for the first time from a startlist that also includes the Italian 2017 winner Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), her Dutch teammate Ellen van Dijk, Denmark’s Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon/Sram).

WHAT IS THE ROUTE? Strade Bianche Donne tackles eight sections of gravel for 31.6km out of the 136km route, which also starts and finishes in Siena. The two longest sections of strade bianche from the men’s race do not feature.

Instead, the focal point of the race will be the tough 9.5km San Martino in Grania uphill section of gravel. Like the men’s race, the women tackle the arduous Colle Pinzuto ahead of the showpiece finale in the Piazza del Campo.

The weather forecast for Siena on Saturday is sunny with clouds, with a max temperature of only eight degrees Celsius. But this follows a solid week's worth of rain and so some of the white roads could be a little brown and not so dusty...