Strade Bianche will be a Mud Fest this Saturday!

Snow has fallen across Tuscany, causing concern for this weekend's Strade Bianche race which has now turned to heavy rain, Mud Fest is on the cards!

Defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) have been training on the gravel roads, now especially white with snow.

“The snow is falling now. I’ve seen the photographs and heard from RCS Sport’s people in the area,” the organization’s director of cycling Mauro Vegni told the press

A cold snap in Europe has left much of Italy covered with snow, with the headlines, “Europe freezes as ‘Beast from the East’ arrives.”

The 184-kilometer, Italian one-day race covers 63 kms of “strade bianche,” or white gravel roads, south of Siena and finishes in the city’s famous Piazza del Campo.

Defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski wrote on Twitter during his course preview, “Strade Bianche it is,” referring to the roads that are now a different form of white, snow white.

The forecast at the the moment could me more snow or a warn front push into Spain which could mean heavy rain, making the conditions even more treacherous. It will be race that no cycling fan will want to miss!

Strade Bianche could be a Snowstorm or Mud Bath this Sunday