The White Roads Classic
The White Roads Classic is 78-mile (126km) road-based sportive which also takes in 33 km of white gravel and chalk roads on and around The Ridgeway in Oxfordshire; an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Sunday 26 July 2020.
Rider Information Pack 2019 WRC
Modelled on the epic European Classic Strade Bianche
The Wilier White Roads Classic is an homage to the most beautiful professional bike race in the world: the Italian one-day Classic known as the Strade Bianche – a race held annually in the hills of Tuscany in early Spring. It features several old white gravel roads or ‘strade bianche’ or ‘sterrati‘, which are becoming as iconic as the cobbled roads of Roubaix and Flanders. The White Roads Classic also features white gravel and chalk roads (eighteen in total, ranging from 1300m to 3900m in length), all of which have been selected as suitable for road bikes. On a sunny day these roads are a brilliant white. The route is situated in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on and around the 8000-year- old chalk ‘Ridgeway’ – the oldest road in the country, on which there are several Neolithic and Iron Age sites.
Mark Cavendish rides alone along one of the many white gravel roads in Tuscany during the 2014 Strade Bianche race.
One of the many White Roads on The Ridgeway
The Tuscany-like landscape of the Ridgeway
The Wilier White Roads Classic will be held on Sunday 26 July 2020, starting and finishing at Streatley Farm, RG8 9PT. Entries are priced at £29. You can sign up using British Cycling’s online entry system – click on the red ‘ENTER’ button below. The event is promoted by Cycle Classics, who also organize the Tour of the Black Country, a Roubaix-inspired sportive, featuring 19 cobbled sectors and a velodrome finish and the Cheshire Cobbled Classic, which includes several steep cobbled climbs, including the infamous 45% Corkscrew.
White Gravel Sectors
| START (0 km) | Streatley Farm RG8 9PT | |
| Sector 14 (4 km) | Streatley | 2000m |
| Sector 13 (6 km) | Starveall | 1300m |
| Sector 12 (10km) | Churn Road North | 2600m |
| Sector 11 (13 km) | East Ilsley | 2000m |
| Sector 10 (20 km) | Tile Barn | 3400m |
| Sector 9 (24 km) | Harwell Field | 1900m |
| Sector 8 (32 km) | East Ginge | 1300m |
| WATER STOP 1 (40 km) | Wantage Leisure Centre | |
| Sector 7 (52 km) | White Horse Hill | 1600m |
| FEED (59 km) | The Royal Oak, Bishopstone | |
| Sector 6 (62 km) | Bishopstone | 3900m |
| Sector 5 (85 km) | Letcombe Castle | 2600m |
| WATER STOP 2 (90 km) | Wantage Leisure Centre | |
| Sector 4 (96 km) | Farnborough Down | 1500m |
| Sector 3 (109km) | East Ilsley North | 2000m |
| Sector 2 (111 km) | Churn Road | 2600m |
| Sector 1 (118 km) | Aldworth | 1500m |
| FINISH (126 km) | Streatley Farm |
Route Map – Animated
Route Profile
Cycling Weekly’s Insider’s Guide to the White Roads Classic
THE Wilier CYCLE CLASSICS SERIES
Cheshire Cobbled Classic – White Roads Classic- Tour of the Black Country
(White Roads Classic footage begins at 01:37)
Basildon Park (National Trust). The 2014 Downton Abbey Christmas Special was filmed here.
Road sign at the base of Dragon Hill, leading up to White Road sector 10 on The Ridgeway.
Dragon Hill, overlooking the Oxford plain. The approach to White Road sector 10 (1600m) on The Ridgeway.
White Road sector 7 (2600m) near Letcombe Castle – an Iron Age hill fort
The 2000m Streatley sector above. Downhill at 5%. The last of the White Roads; only 5km remain at the end of this sector.
First White Road sector (2000m) at Streatley
Flying pebbles and chalk dust above on the first White Road sector (2000m) at Streatley, where The Ridgeway drops down to the Thames.
The Lapierre White Roads Classic finishes in Streatley-on-Thames.
2016 Cycling Weekly Insider’s Guide Photoshoot
Photos from the 2016 Lapierre White Roads Classic event
Photos from the 2015 Lapierre White Roads Classic event
White Horse Hill, just before white road sector 10.
- Sportif Magazine.
- Richard H.
- Andrew C.
- Leigh S.
A typical White Road on The Ridgeway
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Photos: henryiddon.com