Italy coast to coast
The Tirreno-Adriatico, known as the Race of the Two Seas, arrives on Wednesday, March 13, to its 54th edition with an ideal profile for puncheurs and time trialists
The current champion Michael Kwiatkowski (1200) will not be in Tirreno – Adriatico as he will be in Paris -Nice. In his absence, however, Team Sky will play for the win the same: Geraint Thomas (1200) (third last year), **Gianni Moscon (800), Wout Poels (600),**Jonathan Castroviejo (800) and Dylan Van Baarle (600) are already confirmed.
The traditional TTT determines the first leader
The race starts on Wednesday with the traditional team time trial, where the British team is undoubtedly among the favorites. Surely, some fight is expected. Bahrain Merida, with Rohan Dennis (1200), Damiano Caruso (800) and Vincenzo Nibali (800) is expected, and above all, Jumbo - Visma, with a team practically identical to the one that took the UAE Tour TTT two weeks ago: Laurens de Plus (600), Koen Bowman (200), Paul Martens (200), Toni Martin (400), Jos Van Emden (600), and of course, Primoz Roglic (1200), who demonstrated to be the great dominator of the race, and MVR in Cycling Fantasy. Roglic not only took the overall, but also was leader from the first to the last day, and arrived first and second in the two mountain stages.
Very little sprint
This year's route leaves little space for pure sprinters, since all the stages have at least 2000 meters of accumulated positive height difference. In the two stages that they should play (the 3rd and the 6th) there will be a lot of competition. Undoubtedly, in a massive sprint, the top favorites are Fernando Gaviria (1200) and Elia Viviani (1200). Other fast men: Marcel Kittel (800), Giacomo Nizzolo (800), Phil Bauhaus (600) or Sacha Modolo (800). Special mention deserves the super class Peter Sagan (1200), who can be fighting both in the sprint and the hilly stages.
A lot of hills for the puncheurs
The 2nd, 4th and 5th stages are a constant up and down. From the star tlist confirmed to this day, some of those that tend to perform well in this environment are Julien Alaphilippe (1200), Peter Sagan (1200), Thibaut Pinot (1200), Damiano Caruso (800), Greg Van Avermaet (1200), Mikel Landa (1000), Zdenek Stivar (800), Tim Wellens (1000), Adam Yates (1200), Michael Woods (800), Alexei Lutsenko (600) or Tom Dumoulin (1200), to name a few.
A short ITT to sum up
The last stage is an individual time trial of 10 km flat. On paper, Rohan Dennis (1200) would have to prevail, as he was the clear dominator of the specialty during all last season. Tom Dumoulin (1200) and Primoz Roglic (1200) complete the trident of favorites. Other riders who can make good Cycling Fantasy points in this stage are Jos Van Emden (600), Jonathan Castroviejo (800), Victor Campenaerts (800), Woult Poels (600) or Geraint Thomas (1200).
Did you know…
The second stage is a copy of the same stage two years ago, where Geraint Thomas (1200) took the victory with great team tactics.
Last edition’s MVP Damiano Caruso (800) is in the startlist. Both him and Rohan Dennis (1200) moved from disappeared BMC to Bahrain -Mérida this year.