The Strade Bianche is a road bicycle race in Tuscany, Central Italy, starting and finishing in Siena. First held in 2007, it is raced annually on the first or second Saturday of March. The name Strade Bianche stems from the historic white gravel roads in the Crete Senesi, which are a defining feature of the race. One-third of the total race distance is raced on dirt roads, covering 63 km (39 mi) of strade bianche, spread over 11 sectors.
Elisa Longo Borghini is an Italian professional road cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek.
Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling was a British professional cycling team based in Belgium, which competed in elite road bicycle racing and track cycling events, such as the UCI Women's Road World Cup. The team closed at the end of 2018.
Team Coop–Repsol is a professional women's cycling team based in Norway that competes in elite road bicycle racing events.
SD Worx is a professional cycling team based in the Netherlands, which competes in elite road bicycle racing events such as the UCI Women's World Tour. They have topped the UCI Women's World Tour team ranking in 2016–2019, 2021 and 2022.
Anna van der Breggen is a Dutch former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2009 and 2021 for Team Flexpoint, Sengers Ladies Cycling Team, Rabo–Liv and SD Worx. She won the gold medal in the women's road race at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and has won the Giro d'Italia Femminile on four occasions. In 2018 and 2020, she won the women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships.
Katarzyna "Kasia" Niewiadoma is a Polish racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Canyon–SRAM. Among her eighteen professional wins are the Amstel Gold Race in 2019, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio in 2018, and The Women's Tour stage race in 2017. She is a former national champion in both the Polish National Road Race Championships and the Polish National Time Trial Championships, winning both in 2016.
The eighth edition of the Strade Bianche cycling race was held on 8 March 2014. The race started in San Gimignano and finished on the Piazza del Campo in Siena's city centre.
The 2015 women's road cycling season was the sixth for the Boels–Dolmans, which began as the Dolmans Landscaping Team in 2010.
The 2015 Strade Bianche was the ninth edition of the Strade Bianche road cycling race. Held on 7 March 2015, it started in San Gimignano and ended 200 kilometres away in Siena. It was a 1.HC-ranked race that was part of the 2015 UCI Europe Tour.
The Strade Bianche Donne(Strade Bianche Women), also named Strade Bianche Rosa by Italian media, is an annual professional women's road bicycle racing event in Tuscany, Italy. Roughly a quarter of the route is raced on white gravel roads – unpaved country lanes winding through the countryside of the Chianti region – from which the event gets its name.
The 2015 Philadelphia Cycling Classic, known as The Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic for sponsorship purposes, was the sixth round of the 2015 UCI Women's Road World Cup. It was held on June 7, 2015, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The event had last appeared in the Women's Road World Cup in 2001, as the Liberty Classic.
The tenth edition of the Strade Bianche road cycling race was held on 5 March 2016, in Tuscany, Italy. Swiss Fabian Cancellara concluded his third win in the race. The race covered 176 km (109 mi), starting and finishing in Siena. It was part of the 2016 UCI Europe Tour, a 1.HC-ranked event.
The second edition of the women's Strade Bianche was held on 5 March 2016, in Tuscany, Italy. British world champion Lizzie Armitstead won the race, in bad weather, ahead of Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Emma Johansson.
The 2016 Giro d'Italia Femminile or Giro Rosa was the 27th running of the Giro d'Italia Femminile, the only remaining women's Grand Tour and the most prestigious stage race on the 2016 UCI Women's World Tour and on the women's calendar.
The 2017 Strade Bianche was a road cycling one-day race that took place on 4 March. It was the eleventh edition of the Strade Bianche and was the fifth event of the 2017 UCI World Tour. It was the first time that the race was included in the UCI World Tour calendar.
The third edition of the women's Strade Bianche was held on 4 March 2017, in Tuscany, Italy. Elisa Longo Borghini won the race, in bad weather, ahead of Katarzyna Niewiadoma and the previous year's champion, Lizzie Deignan.
The fifth edition of the Strade Bianche Donne was held on 9 March 2019. Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten won the race after breaking clear on the final gravel sector. Denmark's Annika Langvad finished second, Poland's Kasia Niewiadoma third. Starting and finishing in Siena, Italy, it was the opening event of the 2019 UCI Women's World Tour.
The 2022 Strade Bianche Donne was an Italian road cycling one-day race that took place on 5 March 2022. It was the 8th edition of Strade Bianche Donne and the first event of the 2022 UCI Women's World Tour. The usual first race of the season, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was won by the Belgian national champion Lotte Kopecky.
The 2023 Strade Bianche Donne was an Italian road cycling one-day race that took place on 4 March 2023. It was the ninth edition of Strade Bianche Donne and the fifth event of the 2023 UCI Women's World Tour.
