The 2023 edition of Strade Bianche saw another couple of legendary races on Saturday. It was a picaresque day on the roads of Italy, and there was tons of thrilling action as the beginning of the racing season continues to be worth the hype.
Demi Vollering captured the women’s race, while Thomas Pidcock won the men’s race. Here’s more on Strade Bianche 2023:
Vollering wins a sprint over teammate Kopecky
It was a true team effort in the women’s race at Strade Bianche. The SD Worx duo of Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky worked together to catch American Kristen Faulkner (Team Jayco-Alulu) in a dramatic finale. Vollering and Kopecky—who linked up with 11 kilometers to go—effectively team time trialed up the steep final climb to make the pass of Faulkner with a half a kilometer to go.
More From Bicycling
From there, Faulkner was dropped and it was a teammates sprint for the title. In a photo finish, Vollering captured the title over the defending champion Kopecky by the slimmest of margins. It’s another big result for SD Worx of the young 2023 season; Kopecky won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad two weeks ago.
Faulkner came home third, just missing out on the victory. Cecilie Ludwig (FDJ-Suez) managed to hold off the world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) for fourth and fifth, respectively.
Strade Bianche Women’s Top 10
- Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx)
- Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx)
- Kristen Faulkner (Team Jayco-Alula)
- Cecilie Ludwig (FDJ-Suez)
- Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team)
- Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)
- Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram)
- Liane Lippert (Movistar Team)
- Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma)
- Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM)
Pidcock pulls a Pogacar and wins the men’s race
Tom Pidcock wasn’t going to wait for the race to sort itself out in the men’s race at Strade Bianche. Instead, he saw an early move and went with it, leaving the rest of the favorites behind him. Those favorites never caught Pidcock again during the race, as the British rider earned the decisive win—20 seconds ahead of the second finisher.
With over 50 kilometers to go, Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked from the peloton along with Andrea Bagioli (Soudal-QuickStep). Pidcock responded and then a few kilometers later, he gapped Bettiol and Bagioli on a technical gravel descent.
A few chasers got close, but no one was able to actually catch Pidcock, who solo’d to the win from about 50K out from the finish, reminiscent of Tadej Pogačar’s 2022 win at Strade Bianche.
It’s another landmark win for Pidcock, who has already won mountain bike Olympic gold, a cyclocross world championship, and a Tour de France stage on Alpe d’Huez. Now he adds a major one-day road race win to his collection.
Strade Bianche Men’s Top 10
- Thomas Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers)
- Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ)
- Tiesj Benoot (Team Jumbo-Visma)
- Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty)
- Attila Valter (Team Jumbo-Visma)
- Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious)
- Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious)
- Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ)
- Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates)
- Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny)
Dan is a writer and editor living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and before coming to Runner’s World and Bicycling was an editor at MileSplit. He competed in cross country and track and field collegiately at DeSales University.
