Here is the thing nobody tells you about the GranFondo Strade Bianche. The elevation profile looks moderate. The distance looks manageable. And then you hit the first unpaved sector — 3km of hard-packed white limestone-clay that looks gorgeous in photographs and feels nothing like road cycling — and you realise this event is asking questions your training may not have prepared you to answer.
The strade bianche — Tuscany's white roads — are ancient farming tracks through vineyards and olive groves south of Siena. Roughly 30-40km of the 130km route is unpaved. Hard-packed in dry weather, rideable and fast with the right tyres. But when it rains — and early March brings genuine rain risk — that white clay becomes closer to ice than gravel. Tyres slide. Ruts appear. The riders who prepared for these conditions ride through with confidence. The rest walk sections they should be riding.
Key Takeaways
- 130km with 1,800-2,000m of climbing — but 30-40km of unpaved white gravel sectors demand specific tyre choice, bike handling, and pacing beyond what the elevation suggests
- Tyre selection is the single most consequential equipment decision — 28-32mm at reduced pressure give grip on loose gravel, while 25mm race tyres at 100 psi will slide on every corner
- Target 2.5-3.0 W/kg for a comfortable finish — the strade sectors cost 10-15 per cent more energy than tarmac at the same speed
- A 12-week build with specific off-road handling sessions is essential — gravel demands a different weight distribution, braking technique, and cornering approach
- March conditions range from 6 to 16 degrees with genuine rain risk — wet clay becomes treacherous and the right layering separates a memorable ride from a survival exercise
- Fuelling on rough terrain requires practice — eating while managing a vibrating handlebar is a skill that must be rehearsed in training
- The Piazza del Campo finish is one of cycling's most spectacular — the final 2km through medieval streets into the shell-shaped square is something you will remember for the rest of your cycling life
Course Profile and Key Sections
The route loops south from Siena into the Tuscan hills before returning to finish in the city centre. Smooth tarmac alternates with white gravel sectors on exposed hillsides. The cumulative 1,800-2,000m comes in repeated short climbs rather than one sustained ascent. Nothing exceeds 10-12 per cent for long, but the ramps arrive on gravel where traction limits your ability to stand and attack.
The Opening Tarmac: Siena to the First Sector (km 0-15)
The start rolls you out of Siena on paved roads through the southern outskirts. Groups form quickly. The pace settles.
What most people do: sit on a wheel that is 3km/h faster than their plan and arrive at the first gravel sector already above threshold. What actually works: let the fast groups go, settle into 65-75 per cent FTP, eat your first gel within 30 minutes, and remind yourself that the event starts when the road turns white.
The Gravel Sectors: Montalcino and the Southern Loop (km 15-60)
The route heads south into vineyard country around Montalcino. White limestone tracks cut between rows of vines, climbing gently through terrain that could be a postcard. In dry conditions these are fast and enjoyable. The danger is corners — loose surface on bends catches riders who carry too much speed and brake too late.
Let me break this down. Each gravel sector costs 10-15 per cent more energy than the equivalent distance on tarmac. The vibration fatigues your hands, forearms, and shoulders. The reduced traction means your rear wheel slips on steeper pitches, wasting watts. The concentration required to pick a line through ruts drains mental energy you do not notice spending until the fifth sector.
The Crete Senesi: Clay Hills and Exposed Ridges (km 60-90)
Here is where it gets really interesting. The Crete Senesi — literally "Senese clays" — are the bare, eroded hills southeast of Siena. Grey-white clay ridges, almost no vegetation, white roads following the spines of hills with valleys dropping away on both sides. The exposure means wind. A week of dry weather and these roads are fast. One day of rain and the clay becomes adhesive mud that clogs your frame and brakes.
The climbing is relentless. Short ramps of 8-12 per cent on gravel where traction is marginal. Stay seated — standing shifts your weight forward and unloads the rear wheel, causing it to spin. Shift to an easy gear early. Spin at 70-80 RPM.
Monte Sante Marie and Colle Pinzuto: The Defining Climbs
Monte Sante Marie is the climb that defines the gran fondo. A gravel ascent through exposed hillside, steep enough to test your legs and loose enough to test your nerve. The surface breaks up on the steeper ramps — loose stone over clay where your rear wheel finds grip for three pedal strokes and slides for one. Rhythm is everything. No surges.
Colle Pinzuto arrives later when the legs are heavy. Shorter but steep, the final gravel test before Siena. Ride it within yourself. Cracking here means stopping, unclipping, and walking.
The Piazza del Campo Finish: Through Siena's Medieval Streets (km 125-130)
The final kilometres bring you back into Siena on tarmac. The road narrows into the old city. Cobblestones replace asphalt. The route threads through medieval streets — tight turns, spectators, buildings closing in overhead — and then opens into the Piazza del Campo, the shell-shaped central square where the Palio horse race has been run since the 14th century. You ride across the piazza to the finish line. It is one of cycling's truly great finishes and it is worth every white-road kilometre that preceded it.
Fitness Benchmarks
Your FTP zones set the baseline, but the gravel sectors inflate the effective effort above what the gradient alone suggests.
| Capacity | W/kg | Avg Speed | Ride Time | Experience | |---|---|---|---|---| | Strong finish | 3.0+ | 25-28 km/h | 5-5.5 hrs | Experienced, gravel-comfortable | | Comfortable finish | 2.5-3.0 | 22-25 km/h | 5.5-6.5 hrs | Trained, well-paced | | Completion | 2.0-2.5 | 18-22 km/h | 6.5-7.5 hrs | Minimum preparation |
Estimate your calorie burn with the calories calculator — a 75kg rider at 2.5 W/kg will burn roughly 3,800-4,500 calories, with gravel sectors adding 10-15 per cent to the energy cost versus tarmac.
12-Week Training Plan Overview
This plan assumes you are riding 5-7 hours per week and can comfortably complete 80-100km. If your longest ride is under 60km, add four weeks of base building before starting.
Phase 1: Base Building (Weeks 1-4)
Volume: 6-8 hours per week across 3-4 rides. Eighty per cent at Zone 2 — conversational pace, nose-breathing effort.
Anchor session: One long ride per week, building from 2.5 hours (week 1) to 4 hours (week 4). Include 20-30 minutes on gravel, towpath, or any unpaved surface — not for intensity, but to teach your body to relax on a different surface. Practise eating and drinking on the rough sections from ride one.
Midweek: One easy ride of 60-90 minutes. One moderate ride of 75-90 minutes with 2x15 minutes at tempo.
Off the bike: Two sessions per week of core stability, 20 minutes each. Planks (3x45 seconds), side planks (3x30 seconds each side), dead bugs (3x10 each side), single-leg glute bridges (3x12 each side), hip mobility work. A strong core holds your position when the surface is shaking you apart. A weak one collapses at hour four.
Phase 2: Gravel Adaptation (Weeks 5-8)
Volume: 8-10 hours per week. Every week includes at least one deliberate off-road session.
Long ride: Building from 4 hours (week 5) to 5-5.5 hours (week 8) with 45-90 minutes of gravel. Full fuelling rehearsal. Use the fuel planner to set exact gram-per-hour targets and test them on rough terrain. If you cannot eat a gel while riding gravel without stopping, you need more practice, not a different gel.
Quality session: One per week. Sustained tempo — 2x20 minutes at 80-85 per cent FTP with 5 minutes recovery. On gravel if possible. This replicates the effort pattern of the strade sectors. The FTP zone calculator sets the exact targets.
Gravel handling session: One per week, 45-60 minutes on any unpaved surface. Cornering: enter wide, brake before the bend, weight on the outside pedal. Descending: weight back, light front brake, relaxed arms. One-handed riding — practise eating and drinking while the bike moves underneath you. Seated climbing on loose surfaces at 70-80 RPM.
Core: Maintain twice weekly. Progress to longer holds (60-second planks, 45-second side planks). Add single-leg balance work with eyes closed — 60 seconds each side.
Phase 3: Race-Specific (Weeks 9-10)
Volume: 8-10 hours per week. Quality sharpens, volume holds.
Key session: A race-simulation ride of 4-5 hours alternating tarmac and gravel. Tarmac at 70-80 per cent FTP, gravel at 80-90 per cent FTP with 3-4 gravel efforts of 10-20 minutes.
Dress rehearsal: In week 9 or 10, ride 5 hours with race-day fuelling, clothing, and tyre pressures. Everything that can be tested before Tuscany should be tested before Tuscany.
Midweek: One sweet-spot session (2x20 minutes at 88-93 per cent FTP) and one easy spin.
Phase 4: Taper (Weeks 11-12)
Volume drops 30 per cent in week 11 and 50 per cent in week 12. Maintain 2-3 short efforts of 3-5 minutes at 85-95 per cent FTP to keep the legs sharp. Remove volume, not intensity.
Week 11: one ride of 3-4 hours with 3-4 gravel efforts. Two easy rides of 60-75 minutes. Week 12: two rides of 45-60 minutes with short openers. Rest. Eat. Arrive in Siena with fresh legs.
Key Sessions
The Progressive Long Ride
Build from 2.5 hours in week 1 to 5.5 hours in week 8, then hold at 4-5 hours through the race-specific phase. Include gravel from week 1 — even 20 minutes on a towpath counts. By weeks 7-8, 60-90 minutes should be on unpaved surfaces. The purpose is twofold: aerobic endurance for 130km, and the specific skill of managing fatigue on gravel. The difference between riding gravel when fresh and riding gravel at hour four is enormous. Your grip tightens involuntarily. Your line choice deteriorates. Experience this in training so it does not surprise you in Tuscany.
Gravel-Specific Handling Session
Forty-five to sixty minutes on the roughest legal surface you can find. This is a skill session, not a fitness session.
Cornering: Find a gravel corner you can repeat. Ride it ten times. Enter wider each time. Brake before the bend, never during it. Weight on the outside pedal. Find the speed where the front tyre starts to push. Ride 2km/h below that.
Descending: Weight back, hips behind the saddle. Rear brake primarily. The front brake on loose gravel turns a controlled descent into a very short story.
Eating and drinking: Ride gravel one-handed. Remove a bottle, drink, replace it. Tear open a gel at 20km/h on rough surface. Harder than it sounds, and a skill you must own before race day.
Sustained Tempo
Sixty to ninety minutes at 75-85 per cent FTP on rolling terrain. This is the effort level of the tarmac sections between gravel sectors — the pace you default to when the surface is smooth and the temptation to push harder is strongest. No surges. No chasing. The discipline to ride tarmac at a controlled tempo preserves your legs for the gravel that follows.
Nutrition Strategy
March in Tuscany means 6-12 degrees at the start, potentially warming to 14-16 by midday. Cold suppresses appetite but does not reduce caloric demand — and gravel riding increases energy expenditure above tarmac equivalents.
Target: 60-80g of carbohydrate per hour from kilometre one. Use the fuel planner to calibrate quantities against your bodyweight and planned effort.
Drink mix is your primary fuel source on gravel. Unwrapping a bar on a vibrating handlebar is clumsy. Liquid calories in the bottle require one hand for one second. Mix bottles to 40-50g of carbohydrate per 500ml and drink between sectors.
| Hour | What to Eat | Notes | |------|------------|-------| | 1-2 | Drink mix (40-50g/hr) + 1 gel per hour | Establish intake before appetite drops in the cold | | 2-3 | Drink mix + bar or rice cake on tarmac sections | Eat on tarmac only — save concentration for gravel | | 3-4 | Drink mix + gels at feed stations | Gut tolerance may reduce — stick to tested fuels | | 5+ | Gels and liquid carbs only | Stomach may reject solids — do not force it |
Day before: 8-10g of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight — pasta, rice, bread. Familiar food, nothing adventurous.
Race morning: Breakfast 3 hours before the start. 2-3g/kg of carbs. Toast, porridge, honey, coffee. Warm food — a March morning in Siena is cold.
Equipment and Gear
This is the most equipment-sensitive event on the sportive calendar alongside Paris-Roubaix. The difference between a well-prepared bike and a poorly prepared one is not comfort — it is the difference between riding every sector and walking three of them.
Tyres
Width: 28mm absolute minimum. 30-32mm is better. If your frame clears 35mm, seriously consider it. The professional peloton races Strade Bianche on 30mm tyres. You are riding for longer on the same surfaces. Go at least that wide.
Tread: Smooth road tyres work in the dry. In wet conditions, a tyre with some tread pattern gives meaningfully better grip on clay. If rain is forecast, a gravel-specific tyre with 32-40mm width is the smart choice.
Pressure: Use the tyre pressure calculator as your starting point, then adjust lower. For a 75kg rider:
- 28mm tubeless: 5.5-6.0 bar (80-87 psi)
- 30mm tubeless: 5.0-5.5 bar (72-80 psi)
- 32mm tubeless: 4.5-5.0 bar (65-72 psi)
- 35mm+ tubeless: 4.0-4.5 bar (58-65 psi)
These pressures feel soft on tarmac. That is correct. The grip gain on gravel is substantial. If you are running inner tubes, stay 0.5-1.0 bar higher to avoid pinch flats — or switch to tubeless before the event. Test your pressures in training on the roughest surface available.
Bike Choice
A road bike with endurance geometry and 28-32mm tyres works well. A gravel bike with 35-40mm tyres is ideal — the wider rubber transforms the strade sectors, with a marginal speed penalty on tarmac that matters only if you are racing.
Spares and Tools
Carry a spare tube even if running tubeless, a CO2 canister, tyre levers, a tubeless plug kit, and a multi-tool. Gravel punctures happen. A second CO2 canister is cheap insurance.
Clothing for March in Tuscany
Base layer, long-sleeve jersey, gilet, arm warmers, knee or leg warmers, full-finger padded gloves, shoe covers. Pack a lightweight rain jacket — if rain arrives on the Crete Senesi with no shelter for 10km, you will be grateful you have it. Choose gloves with thick palm padding. The vibration from gravel sectors fatigues the hands progressively.
Race Day Pacing
The gravel sectors cost more energy than tarmac at the same speed, and the transition between surfaces requires mental adjustment every time.
Tarmac sections: 70-80 per cent FTP. Controlled, sustainable, leaving a reserve for the gravel. Riders who push hard on the smooth roads arrive at each gravel sector with their heart rate already too high and their margin already spent.
Gravel sectors (flat-to-rolling): 75-85 per cent FTP at a lower speed than tarmac. Accept the speed reduction. Fighting for road pace on gravel burns energy at a rate the terrain does not deserve.
Gravel climbing sectors: 80-90 per cent FTP. Seated, smooth cadence, 70-80 RPM. Shift early — arriving at a steep ramp in too hard a gear and trying to shift under load is how rear derailleurs meet their end on gravel.
Descending on gravel: Brake before the descent, not during it. Weight back. Rear brake primary. Eyes 5 metres ahead. Reduce speed before corners, not in them.
Common Mistakes
1. Wrong Tyres or Wrong Pressure
The most common mistake and the most fixable. Riders who arrive with 25mm race tyres at 7.5 bar slide on every gravel corner and vibrate their hands numb by sector three. Wider tyres at lower pressure are faster on gravel — the tyre conforms to the surface instead of bouncing off it.
2. Pacing the Gravel Like Tarmac
The strade sectors look fast. In dry conditions, they feel fast. Riders push to match their tarmac pace, arriving at the next smooth section having spent 15 per cent more energy than planned. The event is won or lost on pacing discipline across 30-40km of unpaved terrain.
3. Neglecting Off-Road Bike Handling
Pure road cyclists grip the bars tightly, brake mid-corner, and shift weight forward on descents — all correct on tarmac, all dangerous on loose gravel. If your training never leaves tarmac, your first gravel corner in Tuscany is not the place to learn.
4. Ignoring the Weather
March in Tuscany is not summer. Rain is common, cold is guaranteed in the morning, and the combination of wet clay and cold hands has ended the day for well-prepared riders, let alone underprepared ones. Pack for the worst forecast. Carry a rain jacket.
5. Standing on Steep Gravel Climbs
The instinct on a steep ramp is to stand and push. On gravel, standing unloads the rear wheel. The tyre loses traction. The wheel spins. You stop. Stay seated, shift to an easier gear before the ramp arrives, and spin at a controlled cadence.
Travel and Logistics
Getting to Siena
Fly to Florence or Pisa. Florence is 75km from Siena and the easier option. Both airports have car rental and regular services to Siena.
By train. Regular connections from Florence (90 minutes) and Rome (3-4 hours).
By car. A hire car gives flexibility. Parking in central Siena is restricted — book accommodation with parking.
Accommodation
Book early. Siena is small and the event coincides with the professional race. Agriturismos — Tuscan farm stays — in the surrounding countryside are a brilliant option. Hotels in central Siena put you within walking distance of the Piazza del Campo start-finish.
The Professional Race Atmosphere
The GranFondo typically takes place the weekend of the professional Strade Bianche. Watching the pro race the day after your own ride — from the Piazza del Campo or on one of the gravel sectors — is one of the best experiences in cycling. You have ridden those roads. You know what the surface feels like. That perspective only comes from having done it yourself.
Entry
Entry is typically EUR90-120. The event fills up — register early and check the official website for exact dates.
Recovery Plan
The good news: the gravel-specific fatigue dissipates. The less good news: it takes longer than a pure road event.
Day 1 (post-event): Do nothing. Eat well. Hydrate. Hot shower or bath for the lower back and shoulders. If your hands are numb or tingling, this is normal ulnar compression — it resolves within 24-48 hours.
Days 2-3: Light walking or very easy spinning, 30-40 minutes maximum. Smooth roads only.
Days 4-5: Easy Zone 1-2 rides of 60-90 minutes on smooth roads. Listen to the shoulders and lower back.
Days 6-7: Return to normal volume at reduced intensity. Full intensity resumes in week two.
What Comes Next
If the gravel fired something, the Paris-Roubaix Challenge and L'Eroica are natural progressions. If it was the climbing through the Crete Senesi, the Nove Colli and GranFondo Stelvio are waiting.
For gravel-specific preparation, equipment decisions, and pacing strategy, the Not Done Yet community is where we work through this in detail with riders targeting mixed-surface events.