Snow melt causes chaos on treacherous Strade Bianche

The Strade Bianche is one of cycling's most prestigious one-day races. It starts and finishes in the glorious medieval city of Siena, via a tour through spectacular Tuscan countryside. But rain and snow melt turned the race into a mudbath.

Things were particularly grizzly on the race's fabled unpaved sections, the 'Strade Bianche' themselves. It translates as 'white roads' - but 'Strade Marrone' seems a better description today.

As well as the effort of hauling through a sludgy muddy surface, the riders had to avoid moving targets like camera motorbikes which struggled to keep pace.