Tom Pidcock trusted his hunch and produced a special performance on the roads of Tuscany to become the first British man to win Strade Bianche, bursting away from the peloton with about 50km to go and crossing the line alone in Siena.
Sensing an opportunity on the descent out of Montalcino, the Yorkshireman went in pursuit of the early breakaway to blow up the race, leaving an off-colour Mathieu van der Poel in his wake. Making up a deficit of more than two minutes, Pidcock went over the top of the three early leaders before showing incredible legs to hold off an elite group of chasers, including Jumbo-Visma’s Tiesj Benoot, in the final stages.
“When I went, that was not the plan, I was just riding hard, I got a gap on the descent and just carried on,” said Pidcock. “Honestly this week I had a good feeling, I knew something good was going to happen today. I kind of knew today was my day and that it actually paid off is pretty incredible.”
From the original breakaway group, Jayco–AlUla’s Alessandro De Marchi hung with the Ineos Grenadiers rider until about 23km to go, when Pidcock again used his prowess on the gravel to attack.
Behind him a strong group had formed to chase down the solo leader, but a mix of poor tactics – most notably from Benoot and his teammate Attila Valter – and a failure to work together meant the closest they got to Pidcock inside the last 10km was seven seconds. Ultimately, that squabbling, and the 23-year-old Briton’s ability on the descents, meant that he crossed the line in Siena’s famous Piazza del Campo with an advantage of 30 seconds.
“A few times they came close and I thought: ‘Oh I’ve messed it up, I’ve gone too early, I’ve wasted my shot,’ but the thing is, in races like this, it was so fast all day, I thought: ‘If I get a gap and I keep going it’s hard to bring back,’” Pidcock added.
In the women’s race it was Demi Vollering who fought off her SD Worx teammate Lotte Kopecky to win on the line in a photo finish and provide a dramatic conclusion to a race that only really came to life in the final 11km.
Kristen Faulkner (Jayco-AlUla) had made a brave solo bid for victory, going away with 45km to go, only to be caught by Vollering and Kopecky inside the final kilometre as the teammates fought to the line on the steep streets of Siena.
“It was a crazy race,” said Vollering after learning she had prevailed in the sprint. “The final [stage] with Lotte was pretty cool. I attacked as I felt this was the moment – this was the plan – then suddenly Lotte was with me. This was nice as you can go a bit deeper together. Lotte is a killer but I was surprised by her action [in the sprint]. It made it very exciting.”
Faulkner escaped the penultimate gravel sector with a lead of more than a minute from Vollering, who had dashed away in the previous excursion off the tarmac. For a worrying moment the SD Worx rider’s pursuit was hampered by a horse on the road, but as Vollering looked like she was going to be reeled in by Annemiek van Vleuten, Kopecky accelerated away to join her teammate.
This caught Van Vleuten and her Movistar colleague Liane Lippert off-guard, with the SD Worx pair quickly getting into a groove that would ultimately deliver Vollering victory. Faulkner was finally reeled in with 600m to go, setting up a fraught race to the line between the two riders, which Vollering won by the narrowest of margins.
