Just days after professional cyclist Wout van Aert stormed across the undulating white gravel roads of Tuscany to claim victory at the UCI WorldTour Strade Bianche race, the organizers have pulled the plug on the amateur version – Gran Fondo Strade Bianche due to Covid restrictions.

In a scene that is occurring again and again this season, the Italian event was cancelled, then moved from early spring to autumn (13 September) and now cancelled again with no chance of being resurrected in 2020.

“We tried to the last to understand if there were the conditions to play the event, but based on the current rules on prevention for Covid-19, we have assessed that the conditions are not there to carry out the event,” the organizer announced on social media.

Current registrations for the race, which covers 140km with 32km of gravel roads, will roll over to the 2021 edition which is planned for March.

Strade Bianche Gran Fondo is the second Tuscan gravel event to be cancelled this  week after the 24th edition of L’Eroica, planned for the first weekend in October, was cancelled due to COVID-19 and also postponed directly to 2021.

Worldwide Gran Fondo Calendar