Tuesday, 9th March 2021 – This year’s iconic early spring race Tirreno-Adriatico, known as ‘Corsa dei due Mari’ (the Race of the Two Seas), starts on 10th March. The riders start the race in Lido di Camaiore covering 1109.1 km over 7 stages finishing in San Benedetto Del Tronto, with the winner taking the most fascinating trophy, ‘Neptune’s Trident’.
The first stage will be 156 km long and divided into two circuits, with the final kilometres perfectly flat and straight, while Stage 2 will have a slight uphill finish. The third and longest stage covering 219km will start in Monticiano, with a climb up Poggio Della Croce and finishing slightly uphill. Stage 4 will be a short, challenging day for the riders taking them to the highest altitude of the race. The last 14km will rise steadily towards the ski resort, Prati Di Tivo averaging at 7%. On the fifth day, the riders will again race on wide and straight roads along the beautiful coast. After reaching the Castelfidardo, the riders will enter the closing circuit with a succession of climbs and descents over four laps. Stage 6 starts in Castelraimondo with rolling hills at the start, which levels out with a flat finish and expected to be a day for a bunch sprint. The last stage will be an individual time trial of 11.1 km.
Gorazd Štangelj, our Sports Director, commented on the team’s strategy: “The first stage will probably be nervous, just because it’s the first day and a sprint stage. But all other stages are technically and physically very demanding. The fourth stage will be the queen stage, but the winner didn’t achieve more than a 10-second gap whenever the course went up this climb in the past. On the other hand, if you have a bad day in the fifth stage, the gap can be counted in minutes. So I believe the fifth stage will define the standings before the time trial. And since it is no secret that our team is not a front-runner in time trials, we will have to race aggressively from the beginning. Our leader will be Mikel Landa, and all team’s efforts will be concentrated on supporting him.”
Mikel Landa shared his expectations for the race: “Tirreno Adriatico is a race I like. I raced it before a couple of times. I also won a stage three years ago, so I have good feelings before the race. It will be the third race of the season, so maybe it’s a little bit early to know if I will be ready to fight, but I think I trained well. The route is also nice with quite hard mountain stages, so I hope to be close to the win.”
Team Bahrain Victorious’s line-up for Tirreno-Adriatico: Mikel Landa, Pello Bilbao, Damiano Caruso, Eros Capecchi, Mark Padun, Jan Tratnik, and Fred Wright.
