The Strade Bianche’s editions follow one another but are not alike. Unfortunately, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team’s great run on the Tuscan roads ended this Saturday. Although Lewis Askey put in a great performance by snatching nineteenth place after his morning breakaway, the rest of the group will not keep a great memory of this 2025 race, as crashes and mechanical incidents indeed ruined the leaders’ ambitions more than a hundred kilometres from the finish.
Ever more white roads. While the overall distance of the Strade Bianche remained quite similar to last year’s (213 kilometres) this Saturday, the “gravel” sections were clearly on the rise in this 2025 edition. No fewer than 82 kilometres of unpaved roads had to be covered, with a noteworthy sequence of five sectors at the halfway point resulting in an almost uninterrupted fifty kilometres of “sterrati”! The mission was set to be tough, and the first sector came just ten kilometres after the start in Siena. Ten riders were able to tackle it ahead of the peloton, including Lewis Askey for Groupama-FDJ. “We had planned to follow if there was a big move,” commented Thierry. “Lewis did well, because the breakaway took an interesting gap, and that allowed him to have a head start.” “ The breakaway actually went quite early, and we were a super strong group”, said the Englishman. “It definitely was not smaller teams just trying to get on tv. This was a serious group and that meant that we stayed away quite far into the race”.
“Everything came together for the day not to go well”, Thierry Bricaud
At the front, the British rider took a maximum lead of five minutes over the peloton, while the issues were just starting for his teammates. “David was involved in the day’s first big crash, which took around twenty riders,” explained Thierry Bricaud. “He changed bikes, he set off again, but a kilometre later, he crashed a second time. His day ended there.” Groupama-FDJ therefore lost one of its main cards before even starting the fifty kilometres of “Strade Bianche” located at mid-race. There too, things didn’t go in the right direction. “In sector six, we first lost Rémy, who hit a hole and changed bikes”, added Thierry. “In the same sector, Papach suffered a puncture and also changed bikes. In the next sector, we were where we had to be, but it crashed at the very front! Romain and Lorenzo were caught in it. Romain was maybe 4th or 5th in the peloton at that point… He ended up under the bikes, he got going again after quite a bit, and his day was compromised. In this same sector, Valentin had a puncture. The day then became extremely complicated. Everything came together for it not to go well… We knew straight away that it was over because that was precisely the moment when we had to be in the mix, as we knew that it was going to explode, which is what happened. We were too far back, and it is impossible to come back on this kind of course.”
“Lewis’ race is really the only positive note of the day”, Thierry Bricaud
As a consequence, Groupama-FDJ had no one left in a peloton already reduced to around thirty riders before the well-known Monte Sante Maria sector. “With two hours to go, we knew that Lewis would be our only card given all the incidents we had”, added Thierry. In this same “sterrato”, Lewis Askey proved to be among the strongest in the breakaway, but the duo Tom Pidcock-Tadej Pogacar quickly came back from behind. The young Briton let the two big guns go, and then found himself in a first, then in a second chasing group entering the last sixty kilometres. “I made a few errors when Pidcock caught us as I was trying to save energy for later in the race”, he explained. “So I didn’t go full gas to try and follow like Connor Swift did. In the end the group that caught me wasn’t working so well and I got caught out when it split. I wasn’t expecting to have such good legs and I only realised it when I saw the people around me getting dropped”. “His breakaway brought him far,” commented Thierry. “Lewis’ race is really the only positive note of the day.”
“I really enjoyed my day,” Lewis Askey
After the two final loops around Siena, Lewis Askey was able to fight for a top 20 at the finish. Which he achieved on the Piazza del Campo, with a solid nineteenth place, just over five minutes after the winner Tadej Pogacar. “I really enjoyed my day, I love riding on these roads,” he said. “The crowds were super loud, which always makes it feel extra special. In the end, I came away with a top 20, which I think I can be proud of given the 4,200 metres of climbing, which are not really for me. I think I’ll sleep well tonight (smiles).” “It’s good for Lewis because it confirms his start to the season in Belgium, where he was going very strong,” added Thierry. “Today the course was a bit hard for him, but he made the most of this breakaway, it allowed him to have a great day and it will give him confidence for the future. Overall, however, the results are not up to our ambitions. We suffered everything on the same day. Maybe it’s not so bad if it means we can be spared from bad luck later on… The stars had to be aligned, and today, they weren’t. It is neither a lack of good will nor a lack of commitment, it is just how it goes in such an atypical race.”
