Dates 4 March 2017 Distance 175 km (108.7 mi) | Stages 1 | |
The 2017 Strade Bianche is a road cycling one-day race that is scheduled to take place on 4 March. It will be the eleventh edition of the Strade Bianche and will be the fifth event of the 2017 UCI World Tour. It will be the first time that the race is included in the UCI World Tour calendar.
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Teams
As a new event to the UCI World Tour, all UCI WorldTeams were invited to the race, but not obligated to compete in the race. However, all eighteen UCI WorldTeams elected to compete in the race, the first such occurrence in relation to the new-for-2017 races. Three UCI Professional Continental teams competed, completing the 21-team peloton.
Route
The race started and finished in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Siena, for the second successive year, prior to which the race started in San Gimignano. The distance was 175 kilometres (109 miles), run entirely within the southern Tuscan province of Siena. The Strade Bianche is particularly renowned for its sectors of strade bianche (English: white roads) or sterrati (English: dirt), which comprise large sections of the route.
The course ran over the hilly terrain of the Chianti region and included eleven sectors and a total of 61.9 kilometres (38.5 miles) – up from nine sectors and a total of 52.8 kilometres (32.8 miles) in 2016 – of dirt road. The two returning sectors come within the first 30 kilometres (19 miles), at Bagnaia and Radi. The first sector was addressed just 11.4 kilometres (7.1 miles) after the start; the longest and most arduous sectors were the ones in Lucignano d'Asso, 11.9 kilometres (7.4 miles) in length, and the 11.5 kilometres (7.1 miles)-long Monte Sante Marie.
The latter section was renamed in honour of Fabian Cancellara, following his third win in the race in 2016. The last stretch of gravel road came 13.3 kilometres (8.3 miles) from the finish in Siena. The race finished on Siena's illustrious Piazza del Campo, after a narrow ascent on the roughly-paved Via Santa Caterina in the heart of the medieval city, with steep stretches of up to 16% in gradient.