3 Mar 2024

Tirreno-Adriatico, Team Polti Kometa hunting for goals from one sea to the other

Tirreno Adriatico (2.UWT)

4th - 10th March

With the first 2024 UCI World Tour race now in Team Polti Kometa‘s books, it’s time for its first WT stage race: the Tirreno-Adriatico kicks off tomorrow from Lido di Camaiore, as it has been for a decade now. For the 59th year, the race of the two seas (so called because it connects the Tyrrhenian, lately through Tuscany, to the Adriatic on the Marche coast) will serve as excellent preparation for the following week’s Milan-Sanremo.

For Matteo Fabbro, Davide Bais and Mirco Maestri, it will be the second opportunity of the season after O Gran Camiño to measure themselves against the Tour de France champion Vingegaard. Alongside them, there will be climber Davide Piganzoli, the explosive Jhonatan Restrepo, escape artist Mattia Bais, and sprinter Giovanni Lonardi.

In accordance with a now-established format, the competition unfolds over seven stages from Monday to Sunday. After a brief time trial start and the sprint finish in Follonica the next day, the 3rd and 4th days will cover over 200 kilometers each, crossing from west to east through central Italy via Umbria. These will be important chances for attackers and resilient fast wheels, before giving way to the two stages that will decide the general classification: the 5th stage winds entirely through Abruzzo, with continuous ups and downs and the ascent of San Giacomo serving as a springboard towards the 8% finish in Valle Castellana; the 6th is the toughest, with the Forchetta, pian di Trebbio and Moria wall as appetizers for the final 10 km climb up Mount Petrano. Finally, as always, San Benedetto del Tronto sprint parade.

Last year, these lands highlighted the qualities of Davide Bais, who at the Tirreno-Adriatico was second only to the winner Roglic in the climbers’ classification and two months later would win an unforgettable stage at the Giro d’Italia in Campo Imperatore, which, although in a different area, is located in the Gran Sasso National Park where stage 5 will culminate on Friday. “It’s my fourth Tirreno and I’m very motivated,” confides Mattia’s brother, “it’s a challenging race where I’ll try to join many breakaways and conquer the KOM jersey. We’re coming with a complete lineup, from a Fabbro for GC to a Lonardi for the sprints.”

Here are the statements from the sports director Stefano Zanatta: “It’s an honour to be invited to this great event, where we’ll try as always to be protagonists in the face of a very respectable startlist. We’ll give our utmost commitment and competitiveness, focusing on the GC with Fabbro, testing Piganzoli in his first real stage confrontation with the world’s best, and perhaps gaining some satisfaction in terms of results and secondary goals with whoever among our riders has the opportunity.”