What went wrong at Strade Bianche Donne? The misdirection that cost Vollering and Kopecky

What went wrong at Strade Bianche Donne? The misdirection that cost Vollering and Kopecky

FDJ United - SUEZ's Elise Chabbey wins her first Women's WorldTour one-day race from an eight-rider group on the Piazza del Campo, while the two pre-race favourites chasing a record third title finish over six minutes down.

Peter Stuart
•4 min read

Elise Chabbey (FDJ United - SUEZ) claimed the biggest victory of her career at Strade Bianche Donne on Saturday. After an elite eight-rider group splintered on the steep final climb, Chabbey won the sprint finish on Piazza del Campo to take her first Women's WorldTour one-day title.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing zondacrypto) finished second on the same time, with Chabbey's teammate Franziska Koch (FDJ United - SUEZ) behind her in third.

null Results

Siena • Mar 7 • 133km

Velora
PosRiderTeamTime
🥇
Elise CHABBEY
FDJ3:35:42
🥈
Katarzyna Anna NIEWIADOMA-PHINNEY
CSZ+0:00
🥉
Franziska KOCH
FDJ+0:00
4
Elisa LONGO BORGHINI
UAD+0:03
5
Magdeleine VALLIERES MILL
EFO+0:06
6
Puck PIETERSE
APT+0:16
7
Marianne VOS
TVL+0:34
8
Monica TRINCA COLONEL
LIV+0:37
9
Shirin VAN ANROOIJ
LTK+1:21
10
Niamh Mary FISHER-BLACK
LTK+1:47
11
Noemi RÜEGG
EFO+2:29
12
Dominika WLODARCZYK
UAD+3:07
13
Liane LIPPERT
MOV+3:28
14
Mie Bjørndal OTTESTAD
UXM+3:50
15
Sigrid Ytterhus HAUGSET
UXM+5:44
16
Flora PERKINS
APT+5:57
17
Cedrine KERBAOL
EFO+6:02
18
Anna VAN DER BREGGEN
SDW+6:15
19
Paula BLASI CAIROL
UAD+6:15
20
Demi VOLLERING
FDJ+6:15
21
Justine GHEKIERE
AGS+6:15
22
Mary Patricia Kimberley LE COURT DE BILLOT - PIENAAR
AGS+6:15
23
Riejanne MARKUS
LTK+6:18
24
Eleonora CIABOCCO
TPP+6:21
25
Femke DE VRIES
TVL+6:25
26
Cecilie LUDWIG
CSZ+6:28
27
Clémence LATIMIER
MA +6:28
28
Silvia PERSICO
UAD+6:37
29
Pauline FERRAND PREVOT
TVL+6:37
30
Lotte KOPECKY
SDW+7:06
31
Lucinda BRAND
LTK+9:58
32
Nienke VINKE
SDW+9:58
33
Margarita Victoria GARCIA CAÑELLAS
UAD+9:58
34
Millie COUZENS
APT+10:01
35
Léa CURINIER
FDJ+12:56
36
Sarah VAN DAM
TVL+12:56
37
Amber KRAAK
FDJ+13:01
38
Josie NELSON
TPP+13:10
39
Urška ŽIGART
AGS+14:10
40
Morgane COSTON
MA +14:49
41
Ella WYLLIE
LIV+14:54
42
Alison JACKSON
ST +14:58
43
Laura MOLENAAR
VOL+14:58
44
Francesca BARALE
MOV+15:03
45
Arlenis SIERRA CANADILLA
MOV+15:03
46
Sara MARTIN MARTIN
MOV+15:03
47
Lore DE SCHEPPER
AGS+15:06
48
Sophie VON BERSWORDT
VOL+15:13
49
Steffi HÄBERLIN
SDW+15:46
50
Erica MAGNALDI
UAD+15:46
51
Margot VANPACHTENBEKE
LTK+15:49
52
Nina BERTON
EFO+15:54
53
Maya KINGMA
ARO+15:58
54
Marthe TRUYEN
APT+15:59
55
Mischa BREDEWOLD
SDW+15:59
56
Christina SCHWEINBERGER
APT+15:59
57
Neve Summer BRADBURY
CSZ+16:09
58
Ruby ROSEMAN-GANNON
LIV+16:11
59
Letizia BORGHESI
AGS+16:18
60
Caroline ANDERSSON
LIV+16:18
61
Mireia BENITO PELLICER
AGS+16:18
62
Gaia MASETTI
TPP+16:33
63
Chiara REGHINI
TOP+16:33
64
Dilyxine MIERMONT
TPP+16:33
65
Heidi FRANZ
ST +16:33
66
Ingvild GÅSKJENN
UXM+16:33
67
Audrey DE KEERSMAEKER
TPP+16:33
68
Esmée PEPERKAMP
VOL+16:33
69
Noemie ABGRALL
MA +16:42
70
Anne KNIJNENBURG
VOL+16:55

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), two of the pre-race favourites for the 2026 women's Strade Bianche, were effectively removed from contention on Saturday after a race motorbike led their chasing group off the official 133km course in Tuscany at around 33km to go. Other misdirected riders included Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx - Protime), and Kim Le Court (AG Insurance - Soudal).

Peloton and team cars kick up dust on the white gravel roads of the Women Elite Strade Bianche in Tuscany, Italy.

By the time the riders realised the mistake and navigated back to the correct gravel route, they had lost close to three minutes to the leaders, a deficit that proved impossible to close before the finish in Siena's Piazza del Campo.

Vollering finished 20th at +6:15, Kopecky 30th at +7:06.

How the finale played out

Eight riders emerged from the second loop through Pinzuto and Le Tolfe: Chabbey, Niewiadoma, Koch, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education - Oatly), Puck Pieterse (Fenix - Premier Tech), Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women), and Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco). FDJ's two-rider presence in the group gave them the tactical luxury usually associated with SD Worx, while SD Worx themselves had no rider in the front eight, their best-placed finisher was Anna van der Breggen, who finished 18th.

Following a splintering of the group on the 12% inclines Via Santa Catarina, Chabbey made it to the final right hand corner on the Piazza del Campo first, from a leading group of four, and held off Niewiadoma to the line.

The major threads from the race's dramatic misdirection

Lotte Kopecky's reaction

Kopecky was notably self-critical rather than deflecting blame toward the organisation. "I was simply not strong enough," she told reporters including DHnet, adding that the wrong turn was not the decisive factor for her personally – she had already been struggling before the misdirection. "I had the feeling that more blood was going to my stomach than to my legs," she told HLN. She finished 30th at +7:06.

Kopecky also acknowledged the wrong turn itself, explaining after the finish: "I didn't realise it at first, but the gravel was in terrible condition... Then I thought, 'We're not in the right place.' But the motorbiker had gone that way in front of us," she told Sporza.

Demi Vollering's reaction

"After suffering an untimely puncture on the Le Tolfe gravel sector that dropped her into the chase group, Vollering was actively fighting her way back toward the front when the motorbike misdirected them off course – a double misfortune that ended any lingering hopes. "I had a flat tire at the worst moment... I thought, 'don't give up, I can still come back.' But then they sent us the wrong way," she said in the post-finish flash interview."

But rather than dwelling on her own bad luck of a double-misfortune, Vollering celebrated Chabbey and Koch's result. "No matter how bad my day was, this is brilliant," she said, calling herself the proudest woman on the Piazza del Campo. "Chabbey and Koch didn't need my instructions," she added in comments made to WielerFlits.

Race organisation under scrutiny

The Strade Bianche route crosses numerous unmarked gravel tracks, and the responsibility for directing riders correctly falls squarely on the race organisation and their moto marshals.

Coverage and social reaction squarely levelled blame at the organisers. Technically, 1.2.064 of the UCI regulations states that “Riders shall study the course in advance", shifting the liability onto them. But incidents like this clearly put the organisers' ability to direct riders properly into focus. The question is whether RCS Sport will face any scrutiny or sanction from the UCI, and whether this puts pressure on the organisers to change how they marshal a route that threads between dozens of similar-looking gravel tracks across the Tuscan hills.

Cover image credit: Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com

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Peter

Peter Stuart

Editor

Peter is the editor of Velora and oversees Velora’s editorial strategy and content standards, bringing nearly 20 years of cycling journalism to the site. He was editor of Cyclingnews from 2022, introducing its digital membership strategy and expanding its content pillars. Before that he was digital editor at Cyclist and then Rouleur having joined Cyclist in 2012 after freelance work for titles including The Times and The Telegraph. He has reported from Grand Tours and WorldTour races, and previously represented Great Britain as a rower.