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Tirreno-Adriatico, Italy

8 - 14 March

Preview

Overall Map
Startlist
Photos
2005 Results

Stages
8 March, Stage 1, Tivoli - Tivoli, 167K, Map
9 March, Stage 2, Tivoli - Frascati, 171K, Map
10 March, Stage 3, Avezzano - Paglieta, 183K, Map
11 March, Stage 4, Paglieta - Civitanova Marche, 219K, Map
12 March, Stage 5, Servigliano - Servigliano TT, 20K, Map
13 March, Stage 6, San Benedetto del Tronto - San Giacomo, 164K, Map
14 March, Stage 7, Campli - San Benedetto del Tronto, 166K, Map
Total 1,090K

The 2006 Tirreno-Adriatico will be a race unlike the past editions. This year will be a test for the men of the grand tours. The Due Mari will be an intriguing stage race, one that in the past years favored the men of speed but this edition will see stages for the likes of Di Luca and Basso.

For the 2006 edition the organizers have thrown in a 20K time trial (stage 5) and a mountain finish of 12K to Monti della Laga (stage 6). The diversity will attract more of the grand tour contenders to the seven-day stage race (8 - 14 March) who would otherwise head to France for the Paris-Nice (5 - 12 March). But organizers still offer some stages to entice the sprinters, like stages 4 and 7.

The riders will feel the heat of the race from stage 1, with a light uphill sprint finish to Tivoli. The next day, stage 2, will pass the climb of Tuscolo before the final climb to Frascati (7K from the finish). Friday, stage 3, will be another day for attackers with the finish in Paglieta. The finish suits a rider like Paolo Bettini who has won in Paglieta twice. The fourth stage to Civitanova Marche will be one of the two occasions for the pure sprinters, the other being the final seaside stage in San Benedetto del Tronto.

Stage five and six are the nuggets of gold in this year's Due Mari, and what will draw the names away from the simultaneous held Paris-Nice. Sunday 12 March is the fifth stage, an undulating TT of 20K around Servigliano. It has been four years since the organizers last included a TT, won by the Dutch Erik Dekker. It will not be an easy affair, there are only 6K of flat in the undulating course. It will be an opportunity for Basso and Di Luca, who have been working on their TT positioning, to give their bodies and machines a true race test.

24 hours later, stage 6, will take the riders over 164K before the finish at 1105 meters to San Giacomo (Monti della Laga). This is a 12K ascent that will difinatly sort out the GC and ensure the tifosi of a winner who is an overall rider who can climb and TT. At the end of this gruelling climb we should have our 41st Tirreno-Adriatico winner, and the following day in San Benedetto del Tronto will be a pure sprint affair.

Ivan Basso (Team CSC) and Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) will be the two big Giro d'Italia GC contenders who take to the start of the Due Mari. (Due Mari or "Two Seas": Run from the Tirreno Sea to the Adriatico Sea, west to east). In addition there will be the 2004 winner Paolo Bettini (Quick-Step), and his teammate and 2003 winner, Filippo Pozzato; Stefano Garzelli and Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas; Leonardo Bertagnolli (Cofidis) and Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC). Then there are sprinters: Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi, who will use the race as their last Treno Milram test before the Milano-Sanremo; Lampre-Fondital sprint duo Daniele Bennati and Danilo Napolitano; and 2005 winner Oscar Freire (Rabobank), if his knee problems are sorted out.

Past Winners: