Last year, Sean Weide of BMC put us in touch with young Italian photographer Davide Calabresi – and what an auspicious day that was! Since then, he’s been a Friday Feature, sharing his evocative pictures of the Italian National Championships (one of which is currently our Facebook cover picture) and then later in the season sharing his view of Il Lombardia. Lucky for all of us, he was at Strade Bianche earlier this month and he takes us from start to finish … (All photographs ©Davide Calabresi.)
Crisp and clean and ready for the start
Mini tifosi getting an autograph from a Glow
Big smiles from Franco Pellizotti
Spartacus signs in
The red and the black of BMC, plus the rainbow stripes of a former World Champion
A view from behind the motorbikes
The day starts out with a smile – or is that a grimace?
The main breakaway: Michael Schar (BMC), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM), Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Giairo Ermeti (Androni Giocattoli)
Even on the dusty Italian roads, the Argonaut whites are still sparkling
Let’s hope we see Andy Schleck smiling later on this season
Getting a helping hand
“Look what I did!” Moser takes the win
“I’m lookin’ at you!” The Velvet Samurai comes in second
The podium for 2013 Strade Bianche: Peter Sagan and Moreno Moser (Cannondale) with 3rd place Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r)
His champagne bubbleth over
My favourite picture of the set: the champagne gets shared out
You can follow Davide on Twitter and visit his website.