The Tirreno-Adriatico Eolo is turning 56 this year. The race, which takes place between March 10-16, will see many of the strongest pro riders in the world do battle over seven stages.
The event features three stages dedicated to sprinters, two for finisseurs, an individual time trial and one uphill finish in Prati di Tivo, which could be decisive in determining who will be the winner of the 56th edition.
Among those competing to conquer the ‘Tridente di Nettuno’ are:
- Last year’s winner Simon Yates;
- Winner of the 2020 Tour de France and, more recently, the 2021 UAE Tour, Tadej Pogačar;
- Winners of the 2019 and 2018 Grande Boucle, Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas; as well as
- Vincenzo Nibali (Giro d’Italia 2013 and 2016, and Tirreno-Adriatico 2012 and 2013);
- Nairo Quintana (Giro d’Italia 2014, and Tirreno-Adriatico 2015 and 2017);
- João Almeida;
- Jakob Fuglsang;
- Mikel Landa;
- Romain Bardet;
- Thibaut Pinot;
- Ilnur Zakarin;
- Michael Woods; and
- Sergio Higuita.
The winner of last year’s Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo, Wout Van Aert, will make his debut this year. Among the big names chasing the wins on the two finisseurs’ stages, as well as the Muri stage (arriving in Castelfidardo), are cyclocross world champion and winner of the 2021 Strade Bianche, Mathieu van der Poel. He will face road world champion Julian Alaphilippe, three-time road world champion Peter Sagan, Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet and Alberto Bettiol (Tour of Flanders 2019).
There will also be opportunities to shine for some of the fastest wheels in the group – for riders such as Caleb Ewan, Fernando Gaviria, Davide Ballerini, Elia Viviani and Tim Merlier; while world time-trial champion Filippo Ganna will look to add further stage victories to victory at the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2020: the individual time-trial stage of San Benedetto del Tronto.
