- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Simon Gerrans is back, Richie Porte is on a mission and Tiffany Cromwell is out for the biggest win of her career.
It is a landmark weekend in Europe for some of Australian road cycling’s biggest names.
Gerrans and Cromwell will have completely different objectives at Saturday’s Strade Bianche, the new Italian one-day race in southern Tuscany.
The race only started in 2007 and it has quickly grown in popularity, with a women’s race added for the first time.
Strade Bianche is famous for the many sections of white gravel roads that give the race its name.
This is Gerrans’ first race of the season and he will be happy for a solid hitout.
The Orica-GreenEDGE team leader had aimed for another big Australian summer, but Gerrans had to overhaul his early-season plans thanks to a broken collarbone in training late last year.
Cromwell, on the other hand, is one of the race favourites and showed she is on track with a fifth placing on the weekend at Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium.
“I would love to win the Strade Bianche,” said Cromwell, who was also fifth at last year’s world road championships.
“I am looking forward to it, I am motivated and I feel like I am in good shape for the race.
“Since I first heard about the announcement of a women’s edition being added to the calendar in 2015 to take place alongside the iconic men’s classic, I have thought a lot about this race.”
Porte also steps up his early-season campaign in the Paris-Nice stage race, which runs from March 8-15.
The Tasmanian became the first Australian to win the race two years ago.
But after not defending his title, it was around this time last year that he started suffering health problems that would eventually trash his season.
Porte is determined to show that last year’s disasters were an aberration.
Already this season, he has won the Australian time trial championship and a stage in the Tour Down Under, as well as finishing second overall.
Last month, Porte won a hilly stage of the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal.
He is one of the overall favourites at Paris-Nice as Porte builds to his major goal this year – leading the powerful Sky team at the May Giro d’Italia.
Fancy a wager on your favourite sport? Head on over to PlayUp for great odds and friendly customer service and pick a winner. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.