Grand Tour hopefuls will be out in force at Tirreno-Adriatico (March 10-16), with defending champion Simon Yates down to take to the start line.
Other big names who are down to go against Yates (Team BikeExchange) in the battle for the overall are Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Ineos Grenadiers have put down an incredibly strong team with Gerain Thomas, Egan Bernal, Daniel Martínez, Pavel Sivakov and former Tirreno-Adriatico winner, Michał Kwiatkowski down to all potentially go for GC.
The race does not have the usual team time trial on stage one, instead the start of the race has two sprint stages to suit the many top sprinters who are down to ride such as, Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck - Quick-Step).
Another sprinter who will be making his first appearance of the season is superstar Slovakian, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) who is coming back from Covid-19.
One rider who can fit into both slots as he has showed he has amazing ability at both the climbs and the sprints is Belgian star, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) who is looking to go for GC in a stage race for the first time as he looks to potential lead a team to a Grand Tour one day.
Strade Bianche 2021 winner, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) will also be on the start list after a very successful debut at the race last year where he took a stage win.
Only a couple of days suit the pure sprinters in this years race but it hasn't stopped then flock to it despite Paris-Nice having a few more days for the fast men.
>>> Tirreno-Adriatico 2021 route: Stages for the 56th edition of the ‘Race of the Two Seas’
Tirreno suits the punchers much more as most of the stages involve several hilly finishes with a couple of uphill finishes that will suit an explosive attack, perhaps from Van Aert or Alaphilippe.
The main stages for the riders in the fight for the blue jersey, though, come in the middle and end of the race with a huge mountain day and the usual individual time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto, albeit with a few changes to the course.
Defending champion, Simon Yates is indeed down to try and defend his title after he looks to bounce back from that Covid-19 positive that saw him drop out of the Giro d'Italia last year.
Tirreno-Adriatico 2021 start list
Team BikeExchange
YATES Simon
STANNARD Robert
ZEITS Andrey
BAUER Jack
HEPBURN Michael
JUUL-JENSEN Chris
MEZGEC Luka
Ineos Grenadiers
THOMAS Geraint
BERNAL Egan
GANNA Filippo
SIVAKOV Pavel
KWIATKOWSKI Michał
MARTÍNEZ Daniel
PUCCIO Salvatore
AG2R La Mondiale-Citroën
VAN AVERMAET Greg
SCHÄR Michael
BOUCHARD Geoffrey
PETERS Nans
CALMEJANE Lilian
VENDRAME Andrea
WARBASSE Larry
Astana-Premier Tech
FUGLSANG Jakob
FELLINE Fabio
ARANBURU Alex
IZAGIRRE Gorka
BOARO Manuele
HOULE Hugo
MARTINELLI Davide
Bahrain Victorious
LANDA Mikel
CARUSO Damiano
TRATNIK Jan
CAPECCHI Eros
PADUN Mark
TRATNIK Jan
WRIGHT Fred
Bora-Hansgrohe
SAGAN Peter
ALEOTTI Giovanni
BURGHARDT Marcus
FABBRO Matteo
KONRAD Patrick
BODNAR Maciej
OSS Daniel
Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
VLIEGEN Loïc
PASQUALON Andrea
VANSPEYBROUCK Piter
ROTA Lorenzo
HIRT Jan
BAKELANTS Jan
DE GENDT Aimé
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
VIVIANI Elia
HAAS Nathan
SABATINI Fabio
VANBILSEN Kenneth
VIVIANI Attilio
DRUCKER Jempy
BOHLI Tom
Deceuninck - Quick-Step
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
BALLERINI Davide
VAN LERBERGHE Bert
ASGREEN Kasper
ALMEIDA João
HODEG Alvaro
STYBAR Zdenek
EF Education-Nippo
HIGUITA Sergio
CARR Simon
BETTIOL Alberto
HOWES Alex
SCULLY Tom
HOWES Alex
CRADDOCK Lawson
LANGEVELD Sebastian
Groupama-FDJ
PINOT Thibaut
GENIETS Kevin
THOMAS Benjamin
MOLARD Rudy
MADOUAS Valentin
KÜNG Stefan
LUDVIGSSON Tobias
Israel Start-Up Nation
NIV Guy
HOFSTETTER Hugo
CIMOLAI Davide
BIERMANS Jenthe
DE MARCHI Alessandro
WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads
BOIVIN Guillaume
Lotto-Soudal
EWAN Caleb
VAN MOER Brent
WELLENS Tim
FRISON Frederik
KLUGE Roger
VAN DER SANDE Tosh
DE BUYST Jasper
Movistar Team
SOLER Marc
OLIVEIRA Nelson
CATALDO Dario
VILLELLA Davide
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
TORRES Albert
SERRANO Gonzalo
Alpecin-Fenix
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
MERLIER Tim
VERMEERSCH Gianni
VERGAERDE Otto
RICKAERT Jonas
MEURISSE Xandro
VAKOČ Petr
Team Qhubeka-Assos
POZZOVIVO Dmonenico
GOGL Michael
CLARKE Simon
WIŚNIOWSKI Łukasz
VINJEBO Emil
LINDEMAN Bert-Jan
CLAEYS Dimitri
Team Jumbo-Visma
VAN AERT Wout
FOSS Tobias
GESINK Robert
VAN HOOYDONCK Nathan
AFFINI Edoardo
MARTENS Paul
ROOSEN Timo
Team DSM
BARDET Romain
NIEUWENHUIS Joris
TUSVELD Martijn
DENZ Nico
ARNDT Nikias
HAMILTON Chris
KANTER Max
Trek-Segafredo
NIBALI Vincenzo
CICCONE Giulio
SIMMONS Quinn
SKUJINS Toms
LIEPINS Emils
MOSCHETTI Matteo
MULLEN Ryan
UAE-Team Emirates
POGAČAR Tadej
GAVIRIA Fernando
MAJKA Rafał
FORMOLO Davide
OLIVEIRA Ivo
POLANC Jan
RICHEZE Max
Team Arkéa-Samsic
QUINTANA Nairo
ROSA Diego
BOUDAT Thomas
OWSIAN Łukasz
LEDANOIS Kévin
GUERNALEC Thibault
PICHON Laurent
Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec
MUÑOZ Daniel
PELLAUD Simon
SEPÚLVEDA Eduardo
TESFATSION Natnael
BAIS Mattia
MALUCELLI Matteo
BISOLTI Alessandro
Eolo-Kometa
CHRISTIAN Mark
ROPERO Alejandro
BAIS Davide
BELLETTI Manuel
ALBANESE Vincenzo
ARCHIBALD John
RIVI Samuele
Total Direct Energie
DE LA PARTE Victor
BONIFAZIO Niccolò
TERPSTRA Niki
RODRÍGUEZ Cristián
SIMON Julien
MANZIN Lorrenzo
PETIT Adrien
Gazprom-RusVelo
ZAKARIN Ilnur
KREUZIGER Roman
VALASCO Simone
CANOLA Marco
KOCHETKOV Pavel
NEKRASOV Denis
ROVNY Ivan
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