8 Mar 2021

A dream called Tirreno Adriatico. Basso: “Here to leave a mark”

56ª Tirreno Adriatico
10-16 March

And here we are. The appointment is one of the important ones, one of those marked in red on the calendar, one of those for which we prepare and take care of every last detail. The Tirreno Adriatico is many things at once: it’s a wonderful race, one of the most beautiful and fascinating on the calendar, one of those that we’ve all been used to watching on TV since we were children. The Tirreno Adriatico, for EOLO-KOMETA, is the first stage race of the season and is another wonderful taste of the most beautiful cycling, is another step in the process of growth imagined and planned.

It starts. It starts on Wednesday with the first stage from Lido di Camaiore and will end on March 16 with the time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto: seven stages in which the guys of EOLO-KOMETA are called to leave their mark. Seven stages for seven riders: Vincenzo Albanese, John Archibald, Davide Bais, Manuel Belletti, Mark Christian, Samuele Rivi and Alejandro Ropero have been chosen for the “Corsa dei due mari”. It will be up to them to keep high the name of EOLO-KOMETA.

Alejandro Ropero: “The Tirreno Adriatico is a very important appointment in our season. For me being here is an incredible opportunity to continue to grow: for the beauty of the race, for the cyclists and teams that will be there. Racing, and doing it in a big WorldTour event like this, gives me great motivation. The Trident Trophy is one of the most beautiful in cycling. It’s clearly very difficult to win it, but obviously we’ll try to get as close as possible. We worked very well in all the previous stages and now the important thing is that all that work comes out in these races in terms of results.”

Ivan Basso, sport manager: “For us the Tirreno Adriatico, after the Giro d’Italia, is the most important race of the year. Obviously, our goal is to fight for all the goals: we have set up a team that will allow us to have our say on the stage finishes and not on the general classification, and with the exception of the mountain stage that will arrive in Prati di Tivo we count on being able to perform well and leave our mark. After the winter stages we were forced to modify the program due to the cancellation of the February races and we took advantage of the last few races to find the race rhythm. At the Tirreno, we hope to put the work of the last days to good use”.

Fran Contador, general manager: “We’re here, at the start of the Tirreno Adriatico: our second WorldTour race and our first stage race. I know this race well, having followed it when my brother Alberto was in the peloton, and it’s a bit like a small Giro d’Italia: for us it’s an incredible opportunity to give back some of the trust that our sponsors have given us. We’ll do our best, all of us, to be competitive and – why not – to achieve some good results: it wouldn’t be bad. Every day will be different from the day before, stage races are like that and they’re different from one-day races where every rider has the same goal. Here there are different interests, for all the teams: who aims at the stage victories, who aims at the general classification, who aims at the mountain stage and for this reason I think we’ll be more comfortable. However, we have to take into account that there will be the strongest riders in the world and the strongest teams that will be divided between the Tirreno and Paris-Nice. We are excited, very motivated: we will do our best”.

The stages.

1º – Wednesday, March 10: Lido di Camaiore-Lido di Camaiore (156 km).

2º – Thursday, March 11: Camaiore-Chiusdino (202 km).