Tirreno-Adriatico 2015 (spoilers needed)

TheBlaaMan

A bit early, but there is much to look forward to with this year's edition of the race between the two seas. I cannor ever recall an early season race with such a level of class and talent in its roster - albeit at the expense (yet again) of Paris-Nice.

The race runs from March 11 to 17, will feature the last 3 GT winners plus a total of at least (as far as I can count) 14 GT titles amongst its contenders. As well as five-time Grand Tour winner Contador, the 2013 Tour winner Froome, last year’s Tour winner Nibali plus Giro champ Quintana, the lineup will also feature a host of other big names:

sprinters Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin), Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep), Elia Viviani (Sky), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18)

Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia winner Dan Martin, along with Cannondale-Garmin team-mate Ryder Hesjedal

double Giro runner-up Rigoberto Uran,

double Lombardia champion Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha),

multiple Classic winner Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing)

Tour de France podium finisher Thibaut Pinot (FDJ).

Other big names will be Carlos Betancur and Domenico Pozzovivo of the Ag2r La Mondiale team, former world hour record holder Matthias Brandle (IAM Cycling), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Soudal), Pierre Roland (Europcar), Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing), Robert Gesink and Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto NL – Jumbo), Fabio Duarte (Colombia), Adam Yates and Luke Durbridge (Orica GreenEdge) and MTN-Qhubeka’s Gerald Ciolek, a past Milan Sanremo winner, and Edvald Boasson Hagen.

• The race will start from Camaiore with a 22.7 kilometre team time trial.
• Stage two is a likely sprinters’ stage to Cascina,
• Stage three will finish on the Arezzo climb where Peter Sagan won last year.
• Stage four will include four King of the Mountains climbs prior to the descent towards Castelraimondo,
• Stage five is the queen stage to the summit of Monte Terminillo.
• The penultimate stage to Porto Sant’Elpidio will likely suit the sprinters,
• The final GC will be decided on the last day by a ten kilometre individual time trial to San Benedetto del Tronto.

Traditionally a climber wins this race and even with a TTT and an ITT in the mix again, it is highly unlikely to be any different this year. It is going to be interesting to watch the 4/5 main contenders facing up to each other: will anyone be bluffing? Given the performances in Andalucia, Froome & Contador - despite being on different courses for later in the year - are clearly really competitive.

I won't be around to post daily previews so feel free to add in or take over those duties...

sy

Nice work the BlaaMan. Incredible lineup

dastardly00

Disappointingly, Chris Froome and Marcel Kittel have pulled out ahead of the race due to a chest infection and a virus respectively

MPFG

Nice preview TheBlaaMan you are so good at it you will have to do them for the rest of the year

I actually think TA is not such an event without Froome & Kittel

I imagine Quintana & Nibs aren't top form ...and Cav is probably too strong for other sprinters


But hope Sam Bennett gets a result or 2
And Dan Martin

dastardly00

From Cyclingnews:

Tirreno-Adriatico organiser RCS Sport has announced that Wednesday’s planned opening team time trial in Lido di Camaiore has been replaced by a shorter, 5.7km individual test due to recent bad weather along the Tuscan coast.

The race was due to begin with a 22.7km team time trial, but high winds and torrential rain on the Tyrrhenian coast in recent days – chiefly in the Versilia area that contains Camaiore and neighbouring Forte dei Marmi – forced a change to Wednesday’s stage.

“Due to the extreme weather conditions that have affected Tuscany and in particular the area around Versilia, in recent days, RCS Sport has found it necessary to modify the first stage of Tirreno Adriatico, scheduled for Wednesday 11 March,” read an RCS statement released on Monday afternoon.

The 5.7km time trial will thus remain in Lido di Camaiore, and will finish in the same location, the Lungomare Bernardini, as had been planned for the team time trial.

ZiabR

Shame, I love the TTT.

eeeee

Sam Bennet is off at 15.53 today:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/news-shorts-tirreno-adriatico-stage-1-changed-again-and-itt-start-times

dastardly00

Less than 15km remaining in the stage.

dastardly00

Can anyone see any Bora-Argon jerseys near the front?

neris

nice spill there viviani looks ****ed. cav nearly came down to

dastardly00

Horrendous crash with 200m to go.

dastardly00

Sam was third?

blobbie

dastardly00 wrote: »

Sam was third?

Looks like it

Glass Prison 1214

dastardly00 wrote: »

Sam was third?

Apparently, his jersey is impossible to spot, and they STILL haven't shown a results board.

dastardly00

Yep, definitely was Sam in 3rd place.

neris

3rd behind sagan for bennett

dastardly00

6km remaining in today's stage.

dastardly00

Cracking finish. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) wins stage 3, narrowly from Peter Sagan and Stybar.

bcmf

Sagan was coming up like a train on GVA. 10 more metres and it was Sagan's

TheBlaaMan

Stage 4

A short climb comes only a few kms after the start then it's 125km of flatlands before a big climb - 11km averaging 6.4% with sections at 11% - then onto a lumpy last 80km with two circuits of a nasty enough climb at Crispiero to finish off. This is only 3km but sections hit 15% and the surface looks pretty grim in places.


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There is a nice preview here: http://www.c-cycling.com/sites/tirreno15/stage4_preview.html

Tomorrow is the big day featuring the MTF at Terminillo, but today could be interesting if Contador sees an opportunity to gain back those few seconds.....

neris

weather looks brutal again. so bad they cant even get tv pics live from the race

Beasty

Let's discuss what's not happening then, just to give the impression to anyone looking forward to highlights later on that everything's hunky dory. That'll teach 'em for not revealing the spoilers!!

neris

Sagan takes it in a sprint. awful weather and not the most exciting of sprints. Bennett 8th on the stage

dastardly00

I'm happy that Sagan has got back to winning ways, especially with the first Monument of the year coming up this weekend. It's his first stage win since Stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse way back on June 16th (He did win the Slovakian National Championships at the end of June, but he was only second in the actual race as it's a joint Czech-Slovak race. It's a long time for him to go without a victory. But to be fair, he has come in the top-5 an incredible 24 times since that win in the Tour de Suisse up until today.

buffalo

Hadn't seen this angle of the stage 2 sprint crash.