Egan Bernal (Ineos) and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) have real options win Adriatic Tyrrhenian, a race that starts next Wednesday with a route of 156 kilometers, on flat terrain, and which ends next Tuesday with a time of 10 km, with four more Colombian cyclists taking part.
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Undoubtedly, the route suits them and the conditions they have shown in the previous races they argue as two riders that they will be protagonists and that they have a lot to say in the race.
Both have experience with it. Nairo He has raced three times and was champion in two of them, 2016 and 2017, and came second with Alberto Contador in 2014. Bernal competed under the uniform of the Androni in 2017 and finished in box 16 at 3 minutes and 20 seconds behind Quintana.
Of the two, the one who arrives in better shape is the man to be beaten BernHe, who has competed in four races this year and has been podium in three of them: 2 in the Tour de la Provence and in the Laigueglia Trophy and third, last Saturday, in the White roadsAnd in this last race he was full, in good shape, better than his rivals. He had the stamina and strength to lead the way, so in Tirreno Adriatico he will compete for the overall victory.
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The Ineos runner has regained his confidence after the back injury that prevented him from successfully defending the Tour de France title and returned better after intensive physical therapy. One of the most important cyclists in the peloton, he is the one who made the best use of this first high performance summit to fight races and the Tirreno falls within its objectives.
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Nairo has three leagues: he was ninth Tour of the Maritime Alps and VAR, 19 in Laigueglia and fourth in the GP of Industria & Artigianato, so you can see that he is on the rise and in these short races, which last a week, he can give him up and battle partial wins and the podium. The boyacense He knows these World Tour matches are good opportunities to win, to stand out and to name his team.
Of course there are strong rivals. Tirreno is the first face-to-face of the strongest riders in the pack, with the exception of Primoz Roglic, which is performed in Paris Nice. And most importantly, the list includes several opponents that Bernal will face in the Giro d’Italia, such as Simon Yates, defending the crown, Vincenzo Nibali, Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, Mikel Landa, so the appointment will be important, even if there are eight weeks before the start of the race.
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Tadej Pogacar, the current holder of the Tour de France title, will be the big rival of Egan and Nairo. He comes from winning the UAE Tour and is also performing well. It will be an important game and a good option to see what they do at the start of the season. Victory will be a moral blow to your rivals.
The course will have a first high finish next Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and will close the race with a short time trial of only 10 kilometers, in which there will be no major differences. Yes, climbers will have to reach that last day with at least 20 seconds over specialists, but here’s the problem Pogacar It’s going up and the clock is running well, so Bernal and Nairo will have to do the work of keeping it at bay on the climbs.
The other fight Colombian cycling will focus on is that of the pack with Fernando Gaviria, who will have rivals such as Davide Ballerini, Elia Viviani, Peter Sagan, Sony Colbrelli and Caleb Ewan, who will put him against the wall, but if the UAE Emirates rider arrives in good shape, he will have no rival. It’s a great unknown, Gaviria hasn’t been strong for a long time. Álvaro Hodeg will be another Colombian card in the mass arrivals.
Sergio Higuita will be another letter. He will do his first race of the year, but he is a rider who will be in good shape this first part of the season, as he did in 2020 when he won the national road race and finished third in Paris Nice. The Colombian batch tops it off Daniel Munoz (Androni).
LYSANDRO RENGIFO
Editor of EL TIEMPO
And Twitter: @LisandroAbel