Tirreno-Adriatico 2023: GC Favourites

[Underneath article was written before the start of the Tirreno and has not been updated]

The Tirreno-Adriatico opens with a flat time trial and chances are that Olympic Champion Roglic will put down a marker straight away. His main goal this season is the Giro d’Italia and the Tirreno-Adriatico is his first test of 2023. He won the Race of the Two Seas before, namely in 2019. Adam Yates finished in second that year. Those two are arguably the hottest favourites for this year’s overall victory.

After the ITT on day one the Tirreno continues with two chances for fast men before stage 4 looks enticing for punchers. The last 3.1 kilometres go up at 7.1%, so GC riders must be alert also.

Obviously, the Queen Stage is the most important test in terms of the GC. Stage 5 finishes at the Sassosetto, which is 13.2 kilometres climb with an average gradient of 7.2%.

Stage 6 is the so-called ‘Tappa dei Muri’ and the finale takes us back to the 2018 Giro d’Italia, when Simon Yates and Tom Dumoulin battled it out for the stage win and pink jersey on the same roads. Cobbles and sharp ramps will surely detonate the fireworks. The rider who leads the GC after the Osimo finale is going to win the Tirreno-Adriatico, as the last stage is flat.

Favourites 2023 Tirreno-Adriatico

***** Primoz Roglic, Adam Yates, Enric Mas
**** Wout van Aert, João Almeida, Jai Hindley
*** Aleksandr Vlasov, Mikel Landa, Thymen Arensman
** Giulio Ciccone, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Wilco Kelderman
* Hugh Carthy, Michael Woods, Thibaut Pinot, Ben O’Connor