GF Strade Bianche: You were so beautiful, CIAO and see you next year!

For the third time we were present at GF Strade Bianche with CYCLOsportive. Due to corona issues, things are now working as they should for the first time. This means including the professional race on Saturday. What a spectacle! An atmospheric report in pictures.

Text: Gerrit Vermeulen, Image: Sven Asjes

The weather was beautiful in Tuscany. How spectacular it was to watch the pros. What a fantastic finish at Piazza del Campo. We enjoyed many beautiful kilometers on the white roads in Tuscany. But it was so cold! And how intense the climbs over the gravel strips were. The 20 extra gravel kilometers were great and painful at the same time. Write it down for next year: sector 7 Monte Sante Marie. That's going to hurt! You will quickly forget the pain when you turn into Piazza del Campo. You can hardly feel the steep final meters on the Via Santa Caterina due to the encouragement of the large audience. What a delicious Granfondo GF Strade Bianche is!

Gravel is what Strade Bianche is all about! In the 2022 edition, no less than 20 extra kilometers on beautiful gravel roads! Did we enjoy that? Absolute! Have we given up? Certainly! With 700 additional meters of elevation, GF Strade Bianche (142 km and 2,700 meters) is a serious ride :-).

While we provide guidance and ensure that all luggage and bicycles are transported to Italy, our guests travel in luxury by plane to Florence. There they are picked up and taken to the Borgo Antico hotel in Lucignano d'Arbia. When the guests arrive, the bicycles are already shining in the Tuscan sun. After lunch we quickly get on our bikes for the first explorations.

You hope to be able to cycle in the spring sun, unfortunately. It was cold this year. Between 5-10 degrees and on the morning of the Granfondo we were even waiting in the starting area at -1. brrrrr. It didn't spoil the fun and luckily you quickly warm up when you have to climb. There are plenty of gradients above 10% in Tuscany.

On Saturday the pros thundered over the white roads. What a spectacle! The motorcycles, the helicopters, the riders. The dust! The speed at which the pros (men and women) climb up… impressive to see.

Sunday is D-Day for the Granfondo riders. All bikes on the bus and to Siena early in the morning. If all goes well, all participants in our trip are well prepared. We gave them a taste of the gravel strips. We provided them with tips and tricks and advised them to save money during a Granfondo. Don't be fooled by all those fast Italians. The fin is usually in the tail of a Granfondo.

Tuscany, we enjoyed you again. On to next year. Because one thing is certain. This trip will remain on the calendar at CYCLOsportive. The combination of a few days of cycling in Tuscany, watching the pros and cycling the Granfondo yourself is a golden combination in our opinion.