The women’s WorldTour is taking on the dirt roads of Tuscany on Saturday at Strade Bianche. The race is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and in its first decade it has become an established date on the professional calendar, attracting the best riders in the peloton.
The riders will race over twelve sections of gravel on the way to the Piazza del Campo in Siena, including the final 16% climb to the finish line along Via Santa Caterina. The mixture of gravel roads, steep climbs, rolling paved sections, and that brutal final kilometre, makes the racing chaotic and exciting.
Demi Vollering
Demi Vollering won Strade Bianche in 2023 when she outsprinted her then-teammate Kopecky of SD Worx at the finish at the Piazza del Campo. Vollering moved to FDJ-Suez in the off-season and will be looking to continue her strong start to 2025 at her new team. There is no love lost between the Dutch favourite and SD Worx and although Kopecky is not racing on Saturday, Vollering will be looking to get a result over her former team. Vollering has had a successful few weeks, winning the general classification at Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.
Elisa Longo Borghini
Home favourite Elisa Longo Borghini has enjoyed a winning start to life at her new team UAE Team ADQ after a number of successful seasons at Lidl-Trek. She recently took the GC at the UAE Tour, which included a stage win on the climb up Jebel Hafeet. The startlist for the race in the Middle East did not boast the same star names who will be lining up at Strade Bianche, so the race will be Longo Borghini’s first chance to test herself against the likes of Vollering and Katarzyna Niewiadoma in 2025. The Italian won Strade Bianche in 2017 and will be hoping to repeat that success in Siena on Saturday.
Katarzyna Niewiadoma
Puck Pieterse
The twenty-two-year-old Dutch rider, Puck Pieterse is a multi-disciplinary talent, who is well suited to the gravel roads of Tuscany. The Fenix-Deceuninck rider is the 2024 UCI World Champion in mountain biking and recently finished third at the cyclocross worlds in Liévin, France. In her first participation at Strade Bianche in 2023, Pieterse finished fifth as a twenty-year-old. She has started her 2025 season in strong form, finishing fourth at both Omloop Nieuwsblad and Fenix Omloop van het Hageland. Like Niewiadoma, her bike handling ability over gravel and uneven surfaces will benefit her on the twelve sections of gravel on the way to Siena.
Other contenders
Noemi Rüegg of EF Education-Oatly has enjoyed a successful start to 2025, winning on top of Willunga Hill on her way to claiming both the GC and the points classification at the Santos Tour Down Under. Her teammate, Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner has not raced yet in 2025. However, her win at the Games in Paris will mark her out as a contender for one-day races this season.
Should Vollering come into difficulties, her FDJ-Suez teammate Juliette Labous could step in and try and get a result. However, the French rider, who has a history of doing cyclocross, will most likely be protecting her leader as a loyal domestique.
The 2018 winner Anna van der Breggen of Team SD Worx-Protime is returning to the race. After three years as a sports director for the team, last year Van der Breggen announced her return to the WorldTour as a bike rider. The Dutchwoman came third on GC in her first race back at the Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana. If she can rediscover the form that saw her take sixty-two wins in her first spell in the pro peloton, she has the credentials to win on Saturday.
Another interesting prospect is Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of Team Visma-Lease a Bike. She may not be a top contender like the others but her mountain bike and cyclocross skills will come in handy on the dirt roads of Tuscany. Likewise, another dark horse is Marta Cavalli of Team Picnic PostNL who, if she can rediscover her 2022 and 2023 form, could be in contention to win Strade Bianche. The terrain suits the Italian who won the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne, either side of a fifth place finish at Paris-Roubaix in 2022. Cavalli had a disappointing 2024 after struggling with crashes and injury, so will be hoping to get back to winning ways for her new team following a move away from FDJ-Suez.
