John’s Strade Bianche Photo Special!

Strade Bianche Photo Gallery: At long last the 2020 race season will restart. The first big race will be the Strade Bianche, over the gravel roads of Siena on August the 1st. To whet your appetite for the white roads Classic, PEZ photographer, John Thomson has emptied his photo files to compile his favorite Strade Bianche shots.

John Thomson says: “I will miss Strade Bianche this year, but I have put together a gallery with a lot of unseen shots from the wet 2018 and the dry 2019 editions. 2018 was a great race with most of the riders without glasses and more mud than a lot of cyclocross races. Camera was a Nikon D3 with a zone focused 20mm f4 lens and a Canon flash in manual mode. Siena city views were shot with a Fuji X70. Van der Poel was shot with a Ricoh GR II and Canon flash.”

Wout riding to 3rd place with his glasses off is my favorite shot from 2019

Vintage Bianchi on the streets of Siena

Snow in Siena two days before the race

Tiesj Benoot riding to the win in 2018

Piazza del Campo two days before the race

Wout battling to a 3rd place

Early morning race set up on Piazza del Campo

Alaphilippe about to make his winning move past Fuglsang in 2019

Via Santa Caterina in the early morning

It wouldn’t be Italy without a Pez Negroni

or some glam at Milan Fashion Week

Yves Lampaert 11th in 2019

Rising star Tadej Pogačar 30th

Tom Skujins 9th

Peter Sagan 8th in 2018

Alejandro Valverde 4th

Pierre Latour 19th

Marcus Burghardt 15th

Andrey Amador 18th

Daniel Oss 12th

Gianni Moscon 14th

Stefan Küng 16th

Top photog Tim De Waele and moto driver Kim Tiebergyn

Annemiek Van Vleuten won in 2019

The legend Marianne Vos 7th

Anna van der Breggen won in 2018

Elisa Longo Borghini 3rd

Chantal van den Broek-Blaak 4th

Vita Heine champion of Norway 47th

Ellen van Dijk 9th

Emilia Fahlin 59th

Hannah Barnes 51st

Luca Bettini wearing the #1 photo bib ready for a wet race

Giovanni Visconti 5th in 2018 with the cheering tifosi

Tom Dumoulin 21st

Michal Kwiatkowski won in the previous year 2017

Michael Schar with Greg Van Avermaet and Philippe Gilbert

Greg Van Avermaet was 2nd in the previous year 2017

Matej Mohoric 11th

Simon Clarke 17th

Stijn Devolder 28th

Iljo Keisse 52nd, after the finish with soigneur Yankee Germano

Alexandr Riabushenko OTL after the finish

Alex Howes 43rd after the finish

Fernando Gaviria 49th after the finish

Mathieu van der Poel (at Namur) has Strade Bianche in his sights