Last Saturday 142 riders lined up for the eighth edition of the Italian race that has become known as Strade Bianche. The honour roll for this young race is an impressive list of names: Kolobnev, Cancellara, Lövkvist, Iglinsky, Gilbert, Cancellara, Moser… and now Michal Kwiatkowski. The 23-year-old Polish champion has been a rival of Peter Sagan through the junior ranks and into the under-23 category with the pair trading victories for years before joining the WorldTour peloton. In Tuscany last weekend the pair were again battling one another for a victory: in this round it was Kwiatkowski ahead of Sagan…
The winner and runner-up, along with several other big name riders who contested Strade Bianche – including Roman Kreuziger (5th on Saturday), Fabian Cancellara (6th) and Cadel Evans (7th), will start Tirreno-Adriatico today.
RIDE published a profile on Kwiatkowski in issue #62. We will feature coverage of the races of March and April in our next issue. In the meantime, here is a gallery of shots from the Strade Bianchi by Italian photographer Paolo Cibra.
Click the image of Sagan and Kwiatkowski (below) to begin the slideshow…
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