9 Women's WorldTour, 6 top-ranked Continental and 8 wildcard teams to line up in Siena
(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
RCS Sport have announce a total of 23 teams, including nine Women's WorldTeams, six top-ranked Continental and eight wildcard teams, that will line up to race the opening round of the Women's WorldTour Strade Bianche on March 6.
The nine top-tier teams will include defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten's Movistar squad, along with SD Worx, Alè BTC Ljubljana, Canyon-SRAM, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, Team BikeExchange, Liv Racing, Movistar Team Women, Team DSM and Trek-Segafredo.
Marianne Vos' new Jumbo-Visma squad will be on the start line, too, along with a total of nine Italian-registered teams led by WorldTeam Alè BTC Ljubljana and Continental teams A.R. Monex Women's Pro Cycling Team, Aromitalia Basso Bikes Vaiano, Bepink, Born To Win G20 Ambedo, Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria, Servetto-Makhymo-Beltrami TSA, Top Girls Fassa Bortolo and Valcar-Travel & Service.
The organisers recently announced that they will use the same 136km route as the 2020 Strade Bianche won by Annemiek van Vleuten.
The women's 136km race will start at 9:10am CET and include a total of 31.4km of gravel across eight sectors, before finishing on the steep ascent at the Piazza del Campo in Siena.
The gravel sections vary in length beginning at the 18km-mark with the Vidritta (2.1km). The race then hits Bagnaia (5.8km), Radi (4.4km) and La Piana (5.5km) before reaching the feedzone at the 59km-mark. The gravel continues in the last half of the parcours at S.Martino in Grania (9.5km), Monteaperti (0.8km), Colle Pinzuto (2.4km) and finally Le Tolfe (1.1km) located 12km to the finish line in Siena.
Van Vleuten has won the last two editions of Strade Bianche, and other past winners include Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx), Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini of Trek-Segafredo.
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Strade Bianche Women 2021 (Image credit: RCS Sport)
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