Strade Bianche means “white road” in Italian. The race got its name from the dirt roads (“sterratos” in Italian) that are scattered along the route, covering almost a third of the race. The individual stretches of sterrato, known as sectors, are often uphill stretches that determine a racer's standings in the peloton.
There's nothing easy about this race: the grades of these sectors can exceed 18% and the dusty gravel routes make for difficult riding conditions. In the beginning, the race was known as L’Eroica – a name that could have easily been given to the Orca, which the WNT-Rotor Cycling Team uses to compete in this race.
