Under fair weather and at exactly 8.30am this morning, the 5,000 protagonists of the third edition of the Gran Fondo Strade Bianche by Trek crossed the start line in the fantastic location of the Fortezza Medicea in Siena. Throughout the day’s riding, the sun made the going a little more forgiving than the epic conditions faced by the pros racers yesterday.
At the start were various VIPs, including the former road Olympic and World Champion Paolo Bettini, the former road World Champion Alessandro Ballan, riders of the Trek – Segafredo team that raced yesterday’s pro race and, with dossard number 1, Siena’s Mayor, Bruno Valentini.
The young event is growing year by year – both nationally and internationally – with this year’s event seeing more than 800 non-Italian riders start from 33 countries. Nations represented included Belgium, UK and Spain – who, along with Italy, represented the most riders – together with Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark, USA, Norway, Poland, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Canada, San Marino, Lietuva, Macedonia, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Qatar, Luxembourg, Ungary, Malesia, Malta, Croatia, Slovakia, Swaziland, Bulgaria and UAE.
The winners
On the finish line in Piazza del Campo the winner was Tommaso Elettrico (3h47’15”), preceding Vincenzo Pisani at 1′ and Diego Frignani at 12″.
Among the women, first was Simona Parente (4h08’55”), second Debora Morri at 21’56” and third Michela Menegon at 30’19”.
Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia: see you in Cervinia for a Pink weekend!
The Gran Fondo Strade Bianche by Trek starts the 2018 season of RCS Sport/RCS Active Team sportive events, which continues with the la Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia on Sunday 27 May in Cervinia.
In the Valle d’Aosta, as part of an exciting weekend in pink, the sportive riders will face the same three climbs that will likely prove decisive for the final classification of the 2018 Giro d’Italia that takes place the day before: Col Tsecore (1,623m), Col San Pantaleon (1,664m) and the finish line of Cervinia (2,001m).
The event’s philosophy is the same that the organisers apply to all of their events: combining a love for pro races with an individual’s sporting passion, letting riders test themselves on the very same roads on which the pros fought.
