Tirreno Adriatico 2018 – Stage 1 Preview
By David Hunter
Lido Di Camaiore 21.5km TTT
The race begins with the usual TTT.
The route is the normal, out and back course, beside the sea front. At 21.5km, it’s long enough to worry the GC riders as any lost time will be difficult to make back up.
Weather
Periods of rain and sun, a nightmare for a TT. As we all know, forecasting the weather can be very difficult and it will be the luck of the draw. If a team is lucky enough to get dry roads, they’ll have a big chance of success. On the plus side, the route only has four corners. The wind is coming from the sea and should get a little lighter as the day goes on.
Selected Start Times
1400 – Movistar
1405 – Sky
1510 – BMC
1515 – Jumbo
1520 – QuickStep
1545 – Sunweb
Contenders
BMC – they don’t have Richie Porte, but they still possess a number of riders with huge engines. Expect to see Rohan Dennis doing long pulls, he really is a hugely impressive TT rider. Also looking good just now is Stefan Küng, these two riders will be able to carry them a long way. The rest of their squad can hold their own in this discipline and I think they start as the favourites.
Sunweb – the new world champions will want to impress. Of the gold medal squad, they have Dumoulin, Kämna, Kelderman and Andersen. Add into that Arndt, Haga and Geschke and they would normally expect to challenge for the win. The bad news for the team is that Dumoulin is reported to have a cold, we will have to see how much it slows them down.
Sky – they are packed full of talent, with Froome, Thomas, Kiryienka, Castroviejo. Kwiatkowski, Moscon and Puccio. This is a hugely talented squad and they’ll expect to be challenging for the win. As we witnessed at the Tour, they have the best equipment for wet conditions. Froome and Thomas will hope for a big start and to take time on most of their GC rivals.
Jumbo – they have a strong looking squad to support Primoz Roglic. They might not have the big names of some of the other teams, but they do look very powerful to me. They will hope for a top 5 spot.
QuickStep – strong, but not as strong as they would hope to be. They will need a couple of riders to deliver big performances if they are to challenge for the podium.
Prediction Time
It all depends on the weather. If we have the same conditions for all teams, I think BMC win. Looking at the forecast, it suggests that Team Sky could get a little lucky.
David Hunter
Follow us on @CiclismoInter
Join us on facebook: Ciclismo Internacional
Copyright © 2012-2018 Ciclismo Internacional. All Rights Reserved
