The 23-year-old Slovenian, who rides for UAE Team Emirates, has already had a positive start to the season by winning the week-long UAE Tour last week, his first competition on the UCI World Tour since winning the season-ending one-day Il Lombardia in October.

He finished seventh last year in the race, which was won by The Netherlands' Mathieu van der Poel, who will be absent due to a back injury.

Wout van Aert of Belgium will not compete either, opting for the Paris-Nice race, having finished fourth last year.

Third-placed Egan Bernal from Colombia will not race either, meaning only two of last season's top five return for a 184 kilometres race whose name stems from the historic white gravel roads in the Crete Senesi, a defining feature of the race.

The most prominent of these is France's Julian Alaphilippe, a one-day specialist who rides for the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team and has one monument victory and six classics to his name during his career.

The two-time world champion finished second in this event in 2019. 

Britain's Tom Pidcock could also be a contender in a race held annually on the first or second Saturday of March along with Pogačar and Alaphilippe, having finished fifth on his debut last season.

The Ineos Grenadiers rider won the Olympic gold medal in mountain biking at Tokyo 2020 and then added the UCI World Cyclo-Cross Championship title in Fayetteville in January.

The women's race is set to be the opener to this season's UCI Women's World Tour season, with Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten the standout favourite over the 136km route.

The Movistar Team cyclist is the defending World Tour champion and comes into the new season as the Olympic time trial gold medallist and road race silver medallist.

Although she was only fourth in Strade Bianche last year, Van Vleuten crossed the line first in 2019 and 2020.

Home hopes lie with Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy, the 2017 winner and has made the podium a further three times, including last year where she finished second to Dutch rider Chantal van den Broek-Blaak.

New cyclo-cross world champion Marianne Vos has been one of the best road racers on the circuit, but has never won the Strade Bianche Donne.

Belgium's Lotte Kopecky suffered a puncture last year while in the mix, so will hope for better fortune tomorrow, while specialist one-day racers Italian youngster Marta Cavalli and Denmark's Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig are likely to contend for the top three too.