Tirreno-Adriatico 2024: Route, favorites and how to watch

If the Paris-Nice is exciting, the Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 is no less so, with which it usually shares the calendar and where the cream of the peloton also gathers, with Jonas Vingegaard looking to further enhance his palmares and Juan Ayuso starting the season with a tremendous hunger for victory.

Clashes of giants in the Tirreno-Adriatico 2024

The race of the two seas historically, with a mostly flat route, was the perfect option for fast men who were fine-tuning their preparation for Milan-San Remo. However, in recent times, its hilly and constantly tricky route has caught the attention of the top climbers in the peloton, sharing the spotlight with a Paris-Nice with which it simultaneously develops in what is a welcome overdose of cycling for fans of this sport.

A particularly interesting Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 with a select participation that will surely allow us to infer many things about the true form of some of the contenders to be at the front in the next Tour de France.

Favorites to win the Tirreno-Adriatico 2023

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After dominating as he pleased in his debut at O Gran Camiño, there is no doubt that the current Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard must be considered the main favorite for victory in this Tirreno-Adriatico 2023. To achieve this, Visma-Lease a Bike accompanies him with a select team in which we find solid pillars like Robert Gesink, Steven Kruijswijk, or Cian Uijtdebroeks.

On the other side, the UAE Team Emirates emerges as his main rival with a Juan Ayuso who, despite starting the season with minor races, already knows what it is to win this season after his victory in the Faun-Ardèche Classic a few days ago, and in which all his participations, except his debut in the Clásica de Jaén, have resulted in podium finishes. The Emirati team fully supports him and surrounds him with people of the caliber of Marc Hirschi, Rafal Majka, or the young revelation of this season, the Mexican Isaac del Toro.

The third super team in discord, the strengthened Bora-Hansgrohe is also expected to be a protagonist in this Tirreno-Adriatico 2024, in this case, in the legs of Daniel Felipe Martínez who already demonstrated a fantastic form by snatching two stage victories from a monster like Remco Evenepoel during the last Volta ao Algarve. Additionally, having Jai Hindley or Lennard Kamna as teammates ensures full support until the decisive moments of the stages.

There is concern about the form with which Enric Mas. Movistar Team starts his season. Movistar Team has decided to reduce the number of races in the Mallorcan's calendar in order to arrive as fresh as possible for the Tour de France. However, in today's cycling, just training in races is not enough, and if Enric intends to be a protagonist in July, he must start marking his territory from this Tirreno-Adriatico 2024.

In a second tier of possible contenders to be at the front, we find other reference names that place the participation in this Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 at a tremendous level with names like Richard Carapaz, Tao Geoghegan, or Tom Pidcock.

Route of Tirreno-Adriatico 2024

7 stages make up the route of this Tirreno-Adriatico 2024, which will take place between Monday, March 4 and the following Sunday 10. A race that starts, as in recent years, with a 10-kilometer time trial along the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the town of Lido de Camairore. A short route but one that is usually quite tricky in some points, so technique may prevail over pure qualities in this discipline.

The second stage, heading to Follonica, should be fertile ground for the wide range of sprinters who traditionally fine-tune their form in Tirreno-Adriatico for Milan-San Remo. However, only this stage and the final stage in San Benedetto del Tronto should end in a sprint.

The rest of the race is an overdose of the usual traps that appear in Italian races and medium mountain terrain where we will surely enjoy a good show from the great cyclists aspiring to win the coveted trident, the trophy of this race, one of the most iconic in cycling.

Starting with the third stage, a day on hilly terrain where the organization has placed a small climb 16 kilometers from the finish that could lead to the first skirmishes. In addition, the 225 kilometers of the route, a figure increasingly less common in today's cycling, will surely add a good dose of wear and tear for the upcoming stages.

The fourth stage is a strange day, with a mountainous first part, marked by the ascent to Valico di Casteluccio and a finish where we will see a final circuit, undulating and tricky, a classic style that usually provides a lot of excitement in this race.

The toughness of the stages of this Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 will increase with a 5th stage of medium mountain where the San Giacomo pass just 20 km from the finish and a final part in clear ascent should start defining the classification despite not being an excessively tough climb.

It will be the sixth stage that will undoubtedly decide the final winner of the race. A truly challenging route that will culminate with the final ascent to Monte Petrano, a climb of just over 10 kilometers but with an average gradient of 8% on a very constant and sustained profile. That point, without the inhuman harshness of the big ramps, is where we will surely see a series of attacks.

How to watch Tirreno-Adriatico 2024

As we mentioned in the preview of Paris-Nice, Eurosport has to juggle throughout this week to broadcast both the French race and this Tirreno-Adriatico 2024. The Tirreno-Adriatico, being the one that ends first, can be followed entirely on the Eurosport 2 channel as well as on its digital platform starting at 1:00 p.m.