A1. The predecessor was the L’Eroica, founded in 1997 by Giancarlo Brocci in Gaiole in Chianti — and what set it apart was its insistence on authenticity. Participants were required to ride vintage steel bicycles, wear wool jerseys, and use period-correct equipment, turning the event into a living celebration of cycling’s pre-carbon, pre-lycra past. The white gravel roads were central to the concept: they were the roads that professional cyclists had actually raced on in the postwar era, before pavement reached every Tuscan hillside. The professional race that grew out of this spirit — eventually rebranded as the Montepaschi Strade Bianche in 2007 — brought WorldTour fields to those same roads, but it was Brocci’s romantic, backward-looking granfondo that gave the whole project its soul. The L’Eroica granfondo still runs today, drawing thousands of riders on vintage steel every October.
A2. The climb is called the Via Santa Caterina in Fontebranda. At roughly 500 meters long with a maximum gradient of 16%, it deposits riders into the narrow streets leading to the Piazza del Campo — one of cycling’s most visually stunning finishes, with the medieval palazzi looming overhead and the final 30 meters actually descending slightly across the Campo’s famous brick pavement to the finish line.
A3. The inaugural Strade Bianche Donne was won by American Megan Guarnier, riding for the Boels-Dolmans team. Her victory was notable for two reasons: she was the first American woman to win the race, and the USA was not exactly the expected nation to claim the honors on a race so steeped in Italian and European cycling culture. She won from a solo attack in the final kilometers, distancing her teammate Lizzie Armitstead and Elisa Longo Borghini — both riders who would go on to win the race themselves in subsequent editions.
A4. Cancellara’s 2016 victory was the last professional race win of his career. He had already announced that 2016 would be his final season, and his dominant solo performance on the Tuscan gravel — winning by over two minutes — read as a farewell from a champion who had defined the classics for a decade. The cycling world knew it was watching the end of something irreplaceable. He retired at season’s end, and his legacy on the race was cemented the following year when the Monte Sante Marie sector was officially named in his honor — the first rider to receive that distinction.
A5. The sector is Monte Sante Marie — an 11.5-kilometer stretch of exposed gravel road climbing through open Tuscan farmland, featuring gradients peaking at 18% and the kind of relentless up-and-down terrain that destroys anyone who has been riding at the limit. It is the longest and most decisive sector on the route, and the place where races have been broken apart time and again. It also carries a unique honor: it bears the name of Fabian Cancellara, who won this race three times and made these roads his own. A second named sector now exists as well — Colle Pinzuto, christened for Tadej Pogačar following his own hat-trick of victories in 2022, 2024, and 2025.
