'You have to be a complete rider' - Matt and Gracie preview 'unconventional' Strade Bianche

The Women's peloton take on the Italian classic Strade Bianche tonight on SBS, and commentators Matt Keenan and Gracie Elvin discussed the unique and brutal challenges riders will have to overcome to succeed.

Riders battle one of the gravel sectors during the 2022 edition of the Women's Strade Bianche. Source: Getty

Watch the Women's Strade Bianche from 10pm (AEDT) tonight, LIVE on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.

At 138 kilometres long with 9 gravel sectors making up 31.4 kilometres of the course, the Italian one-day race has been compared to classics Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders for it's tricky terrain.

Last year saw Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) emerge as the winner after outlasting Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) in the finale, and those two will no doubt battle it out again along with a field of the Women's WorldTour's best cyclists.

SBS commentator and former pro Gracie Elvin, a four-time Strade Bianche participant, said it takes a skilled and talented rider to navigate the gravel sectors and come out unscathed.

"It's such an unconventional race - it's got the gravel sectors and we see it as a classic," Elvin told fellow commentator Matt Keenan.

"It's a bit like Roubaix, a bit like Flanders, you have to be a complete rider.

"Riding gravel is a whole other skill in itself. Riding cobbles you need to put a lot of power down and keep the bike as smooth as possible but with gravel it's about positioning, you need to be near the front to see what's coming ahead of you."

Riders will no doubt look to avoid disaster through the first few sectors, before the halfway point of the race when sector five, the longest of the course, presents a huge challenge.

"This is always the breaking point in the race," Elvin said of Sector five.

"It's quite technical, there's always a couple of crashes in the first couple of corners on that gravel sector. I've seen people ride off the road into riverbeds and ditches.

The route for the 2023 Women's Strade Bianche.

"It's such a puzzle you have to put together, and that middle sector is where we'll see the race blow apart."

Once the riders reach the run-in to the finish in Siena, the gradients kick up and with energy already burned on the gravel, the real contenders will be the only ones left with the tools to go for victory.

"These are some of the steepest climbs we get in the season and they're back, to back, to back especially in that last 20km of the race," Elvin said of the race finale.

"Everyone's so tired because they're racing to every sector, it's like a sprint to every sector so by sector 7 or 8 you're really tired and that's when they're the steepest."

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