Strade Bianche, as Patrick Lefevere noted on Saturday, is a “photographer’s dream”, and the 2026 edition did not let us down.
Lefevere, the former Belgian team boss, was in fact complaining about the way the men’s race has gone over the years, and he won’t have been best pleased as Tadej Pogačar romped home from almost 80km out once again, collecting a record-breaking fourth title.
What the men’s race lacked in suspense, the women’s race more than made up for, with a rip-roaring day on the Tuscan gravel, made up of endless attacks, wrong turns, and a pulsating finale in Siena, where Elise Chabbey upset the bigger names for the biggest win of her career.
However the races play out, the photos from Strade Bianche are always special, and we’ve picked out some of the best for you to enjoy in all their full-width glory.
We start with a classically beautiful shot of the rolling Tuscan landscape
Strade Bianche is a race that demands repeated punches
There was one man who looked like he was able to enjoy himself
Strade Bianche can be a lonely experience out the back as well as off the front
World champion Magdeleine Vallieres in the thick of the action on the gravel
The white roads kick up clouds of that famous dust
Else Chabbey and Dominika Wlodarczyk ride through the dust at the head of the women’s race
A peloton of riders on the gravel and a lone fan on the hilltop
Strade Bianche can be a painful experience
Aude Biannic rides on bloodied and bruised
UAE Team Emirates-XRG took control of the men’s race on the key gravel sectors
And it wasn’t long before Tadej Pogačar took flight
Once he was off, he was never seen again, apart from by the masses of fans
Elisa Longo Borghini lights it up on the sterrato
A stunning sector gravel here and a ripper of a downhill
Wheels are held aloft all along the course for those who puncture on the gravel
The favourites in the women’s race all to the fore here but mechanicals and wrong turns would flip the…
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