Strade Bianche 2025: Everything you need to know

After a short but pulsating block of racing in Belgium with Opening Weekend, the Spring Classics hit Italy for the iconic, must-watch race of Strade Bianche. Once again the 2025 edition of Strade Bianche will be held on the stunning Tuscan dirt roads, and the men’s and women’s races never fail to deliver exciting action. Both races take place on March 8 with the women racing 136km and the men taking on 213km, respectively.

There’s simply no other race on the cycling calendar like Strade Bianche. The most southernly held Spring Classic, the men’s and women’s races take place on the same day and always provide electrifying action across the picturesque Crete Senesi region in Tuscany. The epic dirt roads that punctuate the Strade Bianche routes, and the beautiful finish inside the Piazza del Campo, put Strade Bianche in a league of its own. 

Although the race is shorter than the traditional cycling Monuments on the calendar, Strade Bianche is a race that only the best riders in the world can win, and in the last few years, more and more fans and riders have called for the race to be given the same Classic status as races such as Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. There’s a special aura around this race, and Strade Bianche 2025 certainly won’t disappoint. 

Don’t forget to check out our complete guide to the 2025 Spring Classics.

The men’s Strade Bianche was founded in 2007, with the women’s event following suit in 2015. 

Since then, Fabian Cancellara holds the record for the most Strade Bianche wins, with three on the men’s side. On the women’s side, former Canyon star Annemiek van Vleuten and Lotte Kopecky have won the race on two occasions. Any rider who wins three editions of the race, like Cancellara, is awarded the honour of having one of the dirt road sectors named after them. 

Starting and finishing in Siena, both races are encapsulated by the dirt roads and technical terrain that make Strade Bianche so unique.  

In 2024, only 105 riders finished the men’s race, while 55 riders finished the women’s race. This year the men’s peloton will race across 81.7km of dirt roads, which are split across 16 individual sectors. The women’s Strade Bianche race route includes 50.3km of dirt roads, spread over 13 sectors.

Both the men’s and women’s Strade Bianche 2025 take place on March 8. Complete start and prospective finish times for each race have yet to be published but the women’s race will finish before the men’s event.

The official route details for the 2025 Strade Bianche courses were unveiled at the end of January at the Sala delle Lupe in the Piazza del Campo. While the starts and finishes remain untouched, there have been some slight changes made to the body of both routes, with an extra sector of unpaved roads added to the men’s and women’s race routes.

For the first time in the history of Strade Bianche, the men’s peloton will race more than 80km of unpaved gravel roads along the race route, with 81.7km the precise distance of dirt sectors that will be faced by the bunch in 2025. There are some early gravel sectors but the race kicks up another gear on the all-important climb to Montalcino, which peaks out at roughly 64km into the race. 

Up next are four more sectors of gravel roads before the all-new sector at Serravalle, which is 9.3km in length. The race then heads towards the next sector of gravel at San Martino in Grania, and another twisting climb. 

Sector 9 at Monte Sante Marie is 11.5km in length, and is arguably the hardest point in the race, both because of the rugged terrain and the long climb to the top of the sector. 

The gravel sectors after that point are relatively short in comparison but their back-to-back nature will wear down even the strongest riders.

At Vico d’Arbia the route hits a final circuit that includes the climb to Colle Pinzuto on sector 11, before the sector at Le Tolfe, and the new sector at Strada del Castagno. The riders will race through Colle Pinzutoand Le Tolfe for a second time before the final 10km run-in to Siena and the final steep climb towards the Piazza del Campo, where the winner of Strade Bianche 2025 will be crowned

The women’s race route for Strade Bianche in 2025 starts in Siena, and just like the men’s enjoy the incredible sights of the finish in the Piazza del Campo. There are 13 sectors in total across the 136km with the two coming inside the opening 15km of racing. 

The fourth sector at La Piana has a long downhill portion before the race hits the new sector at Serravalle. It’s 9.3km in length and includes a tricky climb and there’s little respite with the 9.4km sector at San Martino in Grania coming right on its heels. Sector six is relatively short, just 800m in length but with pitches that reach double-digit gradients, it has the potential to cause major splits in the peloton. 

The final seven sectors then mirror the men’s route, before the race climbs towards the Piazza del Campo.