2016 Strade Bianche, March 5th, 176 km, 1.HC

[Eshnar]

LIVE Coverage (All times in CET):
RAI from 13.25
Eurosport from 14.15

ETA: 15.20-15.40

The 6th monument

The route is quite different from last year. Both start and finish are in Siena now, the length has been reduced by 24 kms, and the first 120 feature different sterrato sections. Overall, the quantity of sterrato has increased significantly, with the inclusion of the adjacent sectors 3 and 4, which combined together measure 20 kms. They are far from the finish anyway... they'll be useful only to wear the peloton out. The real interesting addition of the route is sector 5, almost 10 kms long with some steep climbing. This sector ends at roughly 9 kms to the start of the already mythical sector of Monte Sante Marie (now sector 6, not 7 as last year, and the overall number of sectors is 9 and not 10), after which the route is the same as last year, with the exception of the addition of a short climb after Castelnuovo Berardenga, which substitutes a false flat section.

Provisional startlist (taken from Biciciclismo):
ETIXX - QUICK-STEP
1 STYBAR Zdenek
2 BRAMBILLA Gianluca
3 JUNGELS Bob
4 LAMPAERT Yves
5 MARTIN Tony
6 TRENTIN Matteo
7 VAKOC Petr
8 VERMOTE Julien

AG2R LA MONDIALE
11 BAKELANTS Jan
12 BONNAFOND Guillaume
13 DUPONT Hubert
14 HOULE Hugo
15 MINARD Sébastien
16 MONTAGUTI Matteo
17 SERGENT Jesse
18 TURGOT Sébastien

ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI - SIDERMEC
21 BANDIERA Marco
22 CECCHINEL Giorgio
23 DALL'ANTONIA Tiziano
24 FRAPPORTI Marco
25 RATTO Daniele
26 SELVAGGI Mirko
27 TVETCOV Serghei
28 VIGANO Davide

ASTANA PRO TEAM
31 NIBALI Vincenzo
32 AGNOLI Valerio
33 CAPECCHI Eros
34 FUGLSANG Jakob
35 GRIVKO Andriy
36 KOZHATAYEV Bakhtiyar
37 SCARPONI Michele
38 SMUKULIS Gatis

BARDIANI CSF
41 COLBRELLI Sonny
42 ANDREETTA Simone
43 BARBIN Enrico
44 BOEM Nicola
45 PIRAZZI Stefano
46 ROTA Lorenzo
47 STERBINI Luca
48 TONELLI Alessandro

BMC RACING TEAM
51 VAN AVERMAET Greg
52 BOOKWALTER Brent
53 CARUSO Damiano
54 DE MARCHI Alessandro
55 DRUCKER Jean Pierre
56 OSS Daniel
57 PHINNEY Taylor
58 QUINZIATO Manuel

CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE
61 REBELLIN Davide
62 DE LA PARTE Victor
63 GROSSHARTNER Felix
64 MIHAYLOV Nikolay
65 MROZEK Marcin
66 OWSIAN Lukasz
67 PATERSKI Maciej
68 PONZI Simone

LAMPRE - MERIDA
71 ULISSI Diego
72 CATTANEO Mattia
73 FERRARI Roberto
74 MODOLO Sacha
75 MORI Manuele
76 NIEMIEC Przemyslaw
77 XU Gang
78 ZURLO Federico

LOTTO SOUDAL
81 BENOOT Tiesj
82 DEBUSSCHERE Jens
83 DE CLERCQ Bart
84 LIGTHART Pim
85 MARCZYNSKI Tomasz
86 MONFORT Maxime
87 ROELANDTS Jurgen
88 VALLS Rafael

MOVISTAR TEAM
91 VALVERDE Alejandro
92 AMADOR Andrey
93 ARCAS Jorge
94 QUINTANA Dayer
95 SOLER Marc
96 SÜTTERLIN Jasha
97 VENTOSO Francisco J.
98 VISCONTI Giovanni

NIPPO - VINI FANTINI
101 BOLE Grega
102 BISOLTI Alessandro
103 CUNEGO Damiano
104 DE NEGRI Pier Paolo
105 FILOSI Iuri
106 GROSU Eduard Michael
107 NIBALI Antonio
108 STACCHIOTTI Riccardo

ORICA GREENEDGE
111 DURBRIDGE Luke
112 EDMONDSON Alexander
113 HAIG Jack
114 HOWSON Damien
115 JUUL JENSEN Christopher
116 KEUKELEIRE Jens
117 MEIER Christian
118 YATES Adam

SOUTHEAST - VENEZUELA
121 BELLETTI Manuel
122 BUSATO Matteo
123 MARTINEZ Daniel
124 POZZATO Filippo
125 SANZ Enrique
126 TEDESCHI Mirko
127 TROSINO Mirko
128 ZHUPA Eugert

TEAM LOTTO NL - JUMBO
131 GESINK Robert
132 BATTAGLIN Enrico
133 LEEZER Thomas
134 LINDEMAN Bertjan
135 ROGLIC Primoz
136 ROOSEN Timo
137 TEUNISSEN Mike
138 VAN ASBROECK Tom

TEAM NOVO NORDISK
141 DE MESMAEKER Kevin
142 HENTTALA Joonas
143 KAMSTRA Brian
144 LOZANO RIBA David
145 MEGIAS LEAL Javier
146 CLANCY Stephen
147 PLANET Charles
148 VERSCHOOR Martijn

TEAM SKY
151 FENN Andrew
152 GOLAS Michal
153 KENNAUGH Peter
154 KNEES Christian
155 NORDHAUG Lars Petter
156 KWIATKOWSKI Michal
157 PUCCIO Salvatore
158 MOSCON Gianni

TINKOFF
161 SAGAN Peter
162 BENNATI Daniele
163 BLYTHE Adam
164 BOARO Manuele
165 BODNAR Maciej
166 GATTO Oscar
167 MCCARTHY Jay
168 TRUSOV Nikolay

TREK - SEGAFREDO
171 CANCELLARA Fabian
172 COLEDAN Marco
173 DEVOLDER Stijn
174 IRIZAR ARANBURU Markel
175 BERNARD Julien
176 POPOVYCH Yaroslav
177 REIJNEN Kiel
178 STUYVEN Jasper

 

[Flamin]

Couldn't wait huh?

Field looks great again. Unfortunately no Sep.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Couldn't wait huh?

Field looks great again. Unfortunately no Sep.

just wanted to open it before somebody else would Only 10 days to go after all

 

[jens_attacks]

I make no secret that i will cheer all this year for cancellara
We had our bad moments but he's one of the greats and i wish he will destroy every race this season

 

[SafeBet]

Martinelli hinted that Rosa won't be at the start. He'll probably race Paris Nice as a captain or co-capatain.

 

[Bushman]

Quite possibly my favourite one day race on the calendar (in terms of racing and parcours at least). Hoping Cancellara will put the hammer down. Sector 6 is the place to do it.

Dont know if he is good enough on the climbs anymore though, last year he was lacking. On the other hand he has been climbing well so far this year and is obviously in monster shape.

 

[Bushman]

One of the reasons I love the race is the amount of possible winners:

- Stybar could be in for a repeat, this is maybe the race that suits Stybar the most. He has started the season a bit slower than last year but showed good form in Algarve. + Etixx has a strong team.
- Cancellara is an obvious favourite and looks to be hungry this year. Already two victories to his name.
- GVA and Valverde will both be looking to take revenge from last year. One of these could very well come out on top.
- Nibali looks really motivated and could ride away from everyone on one of the climbs.
- Sagan, depending on his shape, could totally boss the race as well. He has the abilities and the Tinkoff team looks strong with Kreuziger, Gatto etc.

Im rooting for Spartacus as I said, but I have a feeling that Nibali will show everyone that he is fiery this year and come out on top.

 

[Vesica]

No Boom for Astana? Should be his kind of terrain. Also no Sep..

Watch for Benoot as well.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Martinelli hinted that Rosa won't be at the start. He'll probably race Paris Nice as a captain or co-capatain.

That would be pretty dumb Rosa had a great Strade Bianche last year

 

[Brullnux]

Beat me to it

Can't wait. Absolutely awesome race. And now downhill sterrato too! My Giro stage doesn't look so stupid now does it!

Sagan and Valverde will be desperate to win this, so close so many times but no cigar. Wide open so I'm not going to make any predictions. Eshnar could you keep an ever changing update on the Siena province weather? If we are in for a 2010 Montalcino-esque day then I will be so happy.

I hope the action starts on Sector 5. As you said looks really interesting. And if we get racing from 70km out then it'll be awesome. My top lad Fedi is my man to watch. Ofc Benoot, Cancellara, GVA, Stybar and co will be the favourites, along with the two mentioned above. I hope Rosa races.

 

[Eshnar]

Poll created!

 

[robin440]

Rain would be nice

 

[Eshnar]

Too early for forecasts. This weekend should be rainy though...

 

[BigMac]

Greg.

 

[Carols]

I Love this race!!! Fabu FTW!

 

[johnymax]

One of my favourite races. Plenty of possible winners. I'l go with GVA. Can't wait.

 

[TMP402]

GVA (BMC) FTW. Alternatively Alejandro.

 

[DFA123]

Best race of the year; hopefully the new course will make it even more intense.

Pretty much the only race where the sprinter puncheurs and climber puncheurs go in with a near equal shot at winning.

 

[Kwibus]

Shame they reduced the kms.
Anyone knows why they did that? I really like the course of last year, but it looks just fine again this year. Except for 170km course... I mean wtf?

 

[Velolover2]

It's going to be funny to see how good Rebellin is on this kind of terrain, but I have to go with Valverde. He is looking sharp right now.

 

[TourOfTexas]

Nizzolo? Ferrari? Modolo? Bennati? These sprinters have no chance.

My pick is Valverde. He seems really...hot....at the moment.

 

[Velolover2]

Nizzolo? Ferrari? Modolo? Bennati? These sprinters have no chance.

My pick is Valverde. He seems really...hot....at the moment.

Ferrari is pretty versatile. I would not be surprised if he could do a top 10 in a race like this. Benna is just doing the dom work for Sagan. Molodo and Nizzolo have no chance, of course.

 

[Jancouver]

1. See My Avatar
2. Fabu
3. Peťo

 

[Jspear]

Cancellara to crush it....I hope.
2. GVA
3. Valverde
4. Stybar

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Nizzolo? Ferrari? Modolo? Bennati? These sprinters have no chance.

My pick is Valverde. He seems really...hot....at the moment.

Ferrari is pretty versatile. I would not be surprised if he could do a top 10 in a race like this. Benna is just doing the dom work for Sagan. Molodo and Nizzolo have no chance, of course.

Bennati did a pretty good ride here a few years ago, didn't he? Also, I would back Nizzolo for a top 10 over Ferrari, though both scenarios are very unlikely.