Amateurism at its worst: Vollering, Kopecky and Ferrand-Prévot misdirected in Strade Bianche

A disaster for, among others, Demi Vollering, Anna van der Breggen, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Lotte Kopecky, and Kim Le Court in the finale of the 2026 Strade Bianche Women’s race. They were in a chasing group behind the race leaders and followed a race motorbike onto a gravel section. It was only several hundred meters later that they realized they had left the course.

The strong chasing group was about 45–50 seconds behind the front group at that moment, which included Marianne Vos, Elisa Longo Borghini, Kasia Niewiadoma, and world champion Magdaline Vallières. Among others, Van der Breggen, Ferrand-Prévot, and Le Court had dropped back due to bad luck. Slowly but surely, they seemed to be getting back into the race, as teammates of several of the race favorites were also in that group.

The race motorbike rode straight off the road onto a gravel path, while the course should have turned left and stayed on the asphalt. The chasing group blindly followed. At the point where things went wrong, no marshal was stationed. Only after several hundred meters did the motorbike and riders realize they were no longer on the course. When they returned, the gap had suddenly grown to three minutes. Game over, basically.

Oh l'erreur de parcours du groupe Vollering sur les #StradeBianche !! 😮 pic.twitter.com/iF5XRQQBYi

— Josselin Riou (@josselin_riou) March 7, 2026