Watching brief

See it here: If you can’t go to watch it from the roadside, British Eurosport will once again come to your rescue by showing the concluding 90 minutes – 60km or so – of the Strade Bianche live on Saturday 7th March from 1pm until approximately 2.30pm.

Best bits: Try not to miss any of it – or at least what’s shown on TV. Just like the cobbled sections of Paris-roubaix, each stretch of ‘white road’ at the Strade Bianche will test the riders, and may provide the decisive attack, or indeed the decisive crash. But when the gravel is all behind them, and if there’s no lone leader, look for the tough, uphill final kilometre into Siena to provide the springboard for the win.

Who to put your money on:

Any one of Michal Kwiatkowski, Peter Sagan, Fabian Cancellara or Alejandro Valverde are likely to bring home the prosciutto, dependent on their confirmed participation, of course. Cancellara is going to be champing at the bit to make it three wins in Siena, while Kwiatkowski will be hoping that the infamous ‘curse of the rainbow jersey’ – basically celebrating too much in the offseason – doesn’t strike. Providing it doesn’t, he’s the favourite again.

Long shots: If you want longer odds, 2013 winner Moreno Moser, who had a quiet season last year, could be worth a flutter. And for an outside bet, Austrian Matthias Brändle – whose name you’ll recognise as the rider who beat Jens Voigt to set a new Hour record mark in October – might be worth a punt having taken top-30 placings in the last two editions.