It’s going to be an exciting weekend in women’s pro cycling!
The oldest one-day women’s classic race on the calendar, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, will be one to watch this year as G.O.A.T. Marrianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) will be lining up for the first time this season since recovering from surgery, going up against last year’s winner, the powerhouse rider Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo).
Vos has won this race four times before, and she is always a defacto favorite in whatever race she lines up for.
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However, Balsamo will be the one riding with the “race favorite” target on her back as she aims to light up the tarmac with a repeat of her dramatic 2022 victory.
But as is true for all of the classics, the course conditions are such that anything can happen.
What’s the course like
First held in 1974, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda was the only womens-only race on the pro cycling calendar until the late 80’s, when the Giro d’Italia Donne made its debut.
The rolling course clocks in at 139K this year, and culminates in a finishing lap around the Italian town of Cittiglio.
There are two arduous climbs in the circuit that, while relatively short, are severe. The Casale is just 800M long but that short distance has an average gradient of nine percent.
The Ornio is longer, about 3K, and while the average grade of 4.6 percent doesn’t sound too brutal for athletes of this caliber, the maximum grade of the climb is leg-searing ten percent.
How to watch Trofeo Alfredo Binda
Live coverage of the race will start at 9:30 a.m. EST on Sunday, March 19th.
The race will be broadcast in its entirety on what is becoming the go-to source for watching women’s WorldTour racing, GCN+.
Natascha Grief got her first bike shop job before she was old enough to drink. After a six-year stint as a mechanic, earning a couple pro-mechanic certifications and her USA Cycling Race Mechanics license, she became obsessed with framebuilding and decided she wanted to do that next. After Albert Eistentraut literally shooed her off his doorstep, admonishing that if she pursued framebuilding she will be poor forever, she landed an apprenticeship with framebuilder Brent Steelman in her hometown of Redwood City, CA. After that, she spent several years working for both large and not-so-large cycling brands. Somewhere in there she also became a certified bike fitter. Natascha then became a certified personal trainer and spent nine years honing her skills as a trainer and coach, while also teaching Spin. During the dumpster fire that was the year 2020, she opened a fitness studio and began contributing regularly to Runner’s World and Bicycling as a freelance writer. In 2022, she joined the staff of Bicycling as News Editor.
