There are events that are not experienced simply as races, but as something that naturally belongs to the territory where people ride and work every day. The Strade Bianche, for Daccordi, is like this. Siena is just over eighty kilometers from the company, and those hills, with their open ridgelines, fields that change color with the seasons, and long stretches of pale gravel roads, are the same landscape that has always accompanied our rides. It is not only a geographical closeness: it is a closeness of spirit, environment, and cycling culture.
In recent years this race has done something rare in cycling: it has not merely become important, it has changed the way races are imagined. The Northern classics already had their own hard and ancient character made of cobbles, but Strade Bianche introduced another dimension. Gravel, dust, and roads climbing along the ridgelines have brought cycling back to something more essential. And since this race entered the international calendar, more and more events have started introducing gravel sectors, rediscovering routes that had previously been avoided. In this sense Strade Bianche is not just a successful race: it has been a true innovation.
On Saturday the spectacle belonged to the professional race. With the ground dry, the peloton crossed the gravel sectors raising clouds of dust that lingered above the hills. This year the race was also highly anticipated for another reason: the hardest course ever, with more elevation gain than in previous editions. An even more selective race, where power alone is not enough but control, sensitivity on the bike, and the ability to manage fatigue on roads that do not forgive mistakes are essential. The dominance of Tadej Pogačar, in the end, was something many expected, but watching him move across these gravel roads remains a spectacle nonetheless.
On Sunday morning, instead, the scenario changed completely. The rain turned the dust of the previous day into mud and slurry, making the same sectors even more demanding for the Gran Fondo amateurs. Around eight thousand cyclists set off to ride the same roads that the professionals had raced on the day before. And this is where another very beautiful aspect of Strade Bianche emerges. Of course, at the front there is real competition and there are riders who start with the goal of winning or achieving the best possible result. But the great majority of participants experience this day in a different way: as a personal challenge, as an experience to cross kilometer after kilometer.
It is not the logic of winning at all costs, but rather riding hard while also enjoying the route, the landscape, and the unique atmosphere of these hills. It is a tough race — perhaps the toughest ever in this edition — but at the same time it remains a great sporting event where the greatest satisfaction is reaching the finish knowing you gave your best.
When rain enters the picture everything becomes more complicated. Mud builds up on the drivetrain, chains drop, derailleurs lose precision. In these conditions having assistance along the course becomes essential. An intervention at the right moment can allow many participants to restart and continue their day on the Sienese hills. And we, as Daccordi, played our part. And we will reveal a small secret: even providing assistance at Strade Bianche is hard work. Keeping track of the cyclists in your team, running and reaching the various assistance points along the route. A race within the race.
But beyond the race and the Gran Fondo, what truly remains of Strade Bianche is the atmosphere. The landscape, the light on the hills, the roads that seem designed especially for the bicycle. It is the same type of environment in which our bicycles are born and take shape. Here too, around the company, the territory is made of hills, secondary roads, and gravel sectors that closely resemble those around Siena. This is why events like Strade Bianche also tell a great deal about the character of our bicycles: bikes born for the road, but perfectly at ease when the terrain becomes rougher, more authentic.
And perhaps this is precisely the reason why these roads continue to move people so deeply. Because they bring cycling back to its purest form: a bicycle, a road that changes beneath the wheels, and the horizon of the hills ahead.
