Participants Strade Bianche 2025 | Pogacar's challengers revealed, and who will succeed Kopecky?

Unlike many other races, RCS Sport does not beat around the bush when it comes to its races. The official list of participants was announced on the Monday before Strade Bianche, although it may change if riders drop out or are added last minute. So we already know that Pogacar will be there with UAE, with a powerful team surrounding him, including Isaac Del Toro, Tim Wellens, and his buddy Domen Novak.

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS) will be at the start as former winners of 2023 and 2017, but the Italians won't be happy that former winners like Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert are absent. In our detailed preview, we already stated that it is questionable how exciting the race will be, but if Pogacar has an off day, bad luck, or waits too long, a huge group of other great riders will be right behind him.

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A new winner will be crowned in the women's race on Saturday. Defending champion Lotte Kopecky is skipping Strade Bianche to be fitter for the Flemish classics and the Tour de France Femmes in the summer. Last year's second and third place finishers, Elisa Longo Borghini and Demi Vollering, will be there for their new teams, UAE and FDJ-SUEZ. With Kopecky absent, SD Worx-Protime will count on Anna van der Breggen.

This bodes well for a spectacle, especially since behind the 'big three,' a whole group of women could surprise us. Kristen Faulkner (EF) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma) have been big fans of the Tuscan roads for years, Puck Pieterse has already competed twice on behalf of Fenix-Deceuninck in the final of the last two editions, and Canyon//SRAM and Lidl-Trek have put together a powerful team.

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