Mikel Landa starts his season on Tuscany’s white roads.
For the second consecutive year, Strade Bianche will go over the 200km barrier, which has shown last season that it can make the race more attritional, easily altering the dynamic of the Italian classic and how it is raced. In total, 16 white roads sectors will be on the menu of Saturday’s 213km-long race that once again gets underway from Siena’s Fortezza Medicea, and takes the peloton over the gravel road sectors of Monte Sante Marie, Colle Pinzuto, and Le Toffe, to name just a few, old acquaintances that are expected to play an important role in the outcome.
The big news is that the organisers have decided to increase the number of gravel kilometers the peloton will tackle on the second weekend of March, meaning that this year the riders will face a total of 81.7 kilometers of white roads. Once the dust has settled on all these sectors, one more obstacle will remain in the way of those hoping to take the glory: the steep climb on Via Santa Caterina – with its 16% maximum gradients coming just 500 meters from the finish in the beautiful Piazza del Campo.
Strade Bianche will mark Mikel Landa’s first outing of the season in what will be the Basque’s debut at the prestigious Italian race that our team has won on three occasions, and Mikel is looking forward to it: “It’s a new race for me and I’m excited, because I have always loved watching it on TV. I know it will be completely different to be there on the course, in the thick of the action, and really nervous, but I will try to do my best as I get my season underway and just enjoy this experience.”
Landa, a top ten finisher last year at both Le Tour and La Vuelta, will be joined by Mattia Cattaneo, Gianmarco Garofoli, Pepijn Reinderink, Pieter Serry, Mauri Vansevenant – who recently concluded ninth overall at O Gran Camiño – and Louis Vervaeke, the winner of the Tour of Oman’s second stage.
“It’s one of the most beautiful, but also one of the hardest races of the season, and we are motivated to give our best and leave everything out there. It won’t be easy and we don’t start as the favourites, but we have a solid team that comes to the start after some strong outings last week, so we are confident in our chances of being involved in the fight for a nice result”, said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Davide Bramati.
Photo credit: ©Wout Beel
