The 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’, which are becoming as iconic as the cobbled roads of Roubaix and Flanders. The White Roads Classic also features white gravel and chalk roads (sixteen in total, ranging from 1300m to 5300m 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.