Nat Bromhead
Team Sky have finally made headlines for all the right reasons with Michal Kwiatkowski winning the Italian semi-Classic Strade-Bianche overnight.
A brutal 175km event, riddled with climbs, and ridden over a variety of terrain including the famed white roads of rural Tuscany in central Italy, Kwiatkowski was thrilled to take his second win of the iconic race.
“I’m so happy, it’s an unexpected victory,” he said after the solid solo win.
“After the difficult season I had last year, I still had a lot of trust from the team. Now the preparation for this season has already paid off.”
https://youtu.be/kUzhiRFwctk
Van Avermaet Strong Second
Team BMC’s Greg Van Avermaet continued his strong start to his Classics campaign finishing 2nd, with Lotto-Soudall’s Tim Wellens 3rd. Best placed Aussie was Orica-Scott’s Luke Durbridge who finished 8th.
Peter Sagan, dual World Champion and a rider considered a pre-race favourite did not complete the gruelling event. Suffering early, he didn’t look to be in his best form and was assisted into the Bora-Hansgrohe team car after 130km of racing.
Elisa Longo Borghini Wins Women’s Race
Orica-Scott’s Annemiek van Vleuten finished a solid 5th in the women’s Strade-Bianche with teammate Katrin Garfoot crossing the line in 7th position and Amanda Spratt 8th. Wiggle-High5 rider Elisa Longo Borghini won the event, the first women’s UCI WorldTour points race of the 2017 season.
