The route of the 2017 Tirreno-Adriatico will visit the area of central Italy hit by earthquakes, and include a mountain finish on Terminillo as part of a classic route for the ‘Race of the Two Seas’.
The weeklong stage race (March 8-14) will again start with a team time trial in Lido di Camaiore on the Tuscany coast, with the holiday resort agreeing to host the start until 2020. The 52nd edition of the race ends with the traditional, short individual time trial on the sea front of San Benedetto del Tronto. The route includes over 1,300m of climbing, making it much tougher than in recent years.
Tirreno-Adriatico sits between Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo and offers excellent preparation for La Primavera and the cobbled Classics in northern Europe. It also offers vital WorldTour ranking points. Snow forced organisers RCS Sport to cancel the key mountain stage of the race this year, with Greg van Avermaet (BMC) managing to beat Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) by a single second. In 2015 Nairo Quintana won the stunning trident trophy after winning alone in the snow at the summit of Terminillo.
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Tuscan sprinter Daniele Bennati was at the route presentation and hinted that Quintana would be back to race for overall victory in 2017. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Fabio Aru (Astana) are expected to clash for the first time as rivals at Tirreno-Adriatico before their highly anticipated rivalry at the Giro d’Italia in May.
The head of RCS Sport, Mauro Vegni, hinted that Team Sky has promised to send a “strong squad” to Tirreno-Adriatico which is likely to reflect their line-up for the Giro d’Italia. Vegni refused to reveal if that includes Chris Froome but hopes to have many of the biggest Grand Tour riders at Tirreno-Adriatico. World champion Peter Sagan is also expected to ride again as he prepares for the spring Classics.
"The route follows the one proposed in recent years with the initial and final time trials, two sprint stages, two stages for finisseur, and an uphill finish that this year returns to the Terminillo,” race director Stefano Allocchio explained at the official presentation in Camaiore.
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