The Strade dell´Eroica starts in San Gimignano, a Tuscan city looking like a fairytale. Riders get on their bikes and leave the medieval hill town to enter a race with medieval characteristics.
The route consists of 200 kilometres around the city of Siena, including 50 kilometres of gravel roads, called sterrati in Italy. A network of unpaved back roads that run among the vineyards and olive groves of the Tuscan cou...
Read moreThe Strade dell´Eroica starts in San Gimignano, a Tuscan city looking like a fairytale. Riders get on their bikes and leave the medieval hill town to enter a race with medieval characteristics.
The route consists of 200 kilometres around the city of Siena, including 50 kilometres of gravel roads, called sterrati in Italy. A network of unpaved back roads that run among the vineyards and olive groves of the Tuscan countryside.
Strade dell´Eroica is defined by the 50km of dirt roads that make up a quarter of the route. The ten sectors pose an altogether different test, and renders the Strade dell´Eroica a unique challenge on the cycling calendar.
Like the cobblestones in the northern classics, these dirt sectors are spread out across the route and serve the same function of breaking up the race, and the terrain is – similar to classics like the Roubaix Classic and Antwerpen - Huy – littered with many short, sharp hills that make life even more difficult and attritional for the peloton.
But even these hills are distinct from those in Belgium. They are generally a little longer and do not, of course, cover any cobbled roads, and therefore favour lighter climbers more than powerful rouleurs. And, perhaps most crucially of all, the climbing is not done by the time the riders reach the finale, as a 1km-long drag with gradients of 16 per cent in Siena swings the advantage towards those with a quick uphill sprint.
The winner will be celebrated in front of thousand of fans at Il Campo, Siena famous square.
