Kévin Vauquelin to discover Strade Bianche
This Saturday, Kévin Vauquelin will discover the young but no less mythical ‘sterrati’ of the Strade Bianche. The Norman rider, Simon Guglielmi and Yvon Ledanois tell us all about this very special race.
“This Italian calendar at the start of the season will be very new for me and I’m looking forward to discovering the Strade Bianche. It’s a race I was looking forward to when I turned professional. I’ll be racing it this Saturday and I think it’s a race that’s right up my street: it’s punchy, tiring and involves efforts that I like to make.”
“The Strade Bianche is my favourite race on the calendar, it’s never monotonous, there are twists and turns at every moment… And it’s surely a Monument in the making. On this day, you know that you’re not going to experience a race like any other. The fact that the course is longer this year will perhaps allow us to have moments when we can ‘relax a bit’. There may be a bit more management than usual, as it’s usually ‘all-out’ from start to finish. Nothing is written in stone. The tendency in recent years has been to attack further and further away. In any case, it remains one of the most physically demanding races.”
“The addition of a loop in the final means that this new course will be even tougher than in previous years. Unsurprisingly, the strongest riders will be out in front. We’ll have two protected riders: Kévin Vauquelin and Vincenzo Albanese. They’ve had a promising start to the season and have shown that they’re in good form. The whole team will have to be at the service of its leaders, or seize the opportunity to get a head start to be present at the end of the race. If we’re well placed in the early sectors and don’t waste too much energy, we’ll be in a position to follow the leaders into the final stretch towards Siena”.