The women's Strade Bianche served as the first event of the inaugural UCI Women's World Tour, the highest level of professional women's cycling.[2][3] The race is organized on the same day as the men's event, at a shorter distance, but on much of the same roads.[3]
Route
The Strade Bianche is a one day cycling race starting in and finishing in Siena,[3] notorious for its long sections of white gravel roads (sterrati or strade bianche in Italian). The course runs over hilly terrain in the province of Siena, for a total of 121 km, featuring seven sectors and 22.4 km of dirt roads.[3][4] Six sectors were in common with the men's route.[5] The race finished on Siena's Piazza del Campo, after a narrow ascent on the roughly-paved Via Santa Caterina in the heart of the medieval city.