Magdeleine Vallières Mill scored Canada’s best-ever Strade Bianche Donne result on Saturday, taking fifth in Siena after an engrossing race. Karol-Ann Canuel was ninth in 2020 and Leah Kirchmann placed tenth in 2016. Swiss rider Elise Chabbey earned the biggest win of her career, beating a trio of rivals on the final cobbled climb to the line. Canadian world champion Vallières Mill was in the thick of the action all day.
Preliminaries
In last year’s race, two Dutch ex-teammates, Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen, threw down, with Vollering triumphing in Siena.
The Course
The women received 12 sectors of gravel over 133 km adding up to 31.7 km. Sector 5 was the most epic: 9.5-km San Martino is characterized by constant ups and downs in the first part and a twisting climb at the end. Two finishing circuits each contained four-star Colle Pinzuto and Le Tolfe sectors. In Siena, with 900 metres to the finish line, the race route passed beneath Fontebranda Gate where the road surface turned to cobbles. The gradient kicked up to 10 percent until 500 metres from the line, with a maximum gradient of 16 percent along Via Santa Caterina.
Magdeleine Vallières Mill brought her rainbow jersey to Tuscany. The Canadian champion, Alison Jackson (St Michel–Preference Home–Auber93) and Visma’s Sarah Van Dam made up the Canadian contingent.
The five-star sector San Martino in Grania streamlined the peloton to 24 elite riders, Vallières Mill in the mix with Vollering, Lotte Kopecky, Puck Pieterse, Lucinda Brand and Tour de France champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Vollering’s FDJ-Suez mob pulled.
On the first passage of Colle Pinzuto, Chabbey attacked with last year’s Tour de France fourth place Dominika Włodarczyk. Vallieres-Mill led the chase for a while, but the duo had 30 seconds by 1.1-km Le Tolfe. Ferrand-Prévot punctured and Vollering had a mechanical as well. Letizia Borghesi couldn’t make a curve and rolled into the crowd. Chabbey and Włodarczyk were contained.
Could Ferrand-Prévot and Vollering come back? They had Brand and Kopecky in their chase group, which followed a moto down the wrong road. Włodarczyk powered the 13-strong front group.
Who else was with Vallières Mill, Chabbey and Włodarczyk? Marianne Vos, Pieterse, Elisa Longo…
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