Tirreno-Adriatico overlaps with Paris-Nice and offers an Italian alternative to the French race. Whilst Paris-Nice is the 'Race to the Sun', Tirreno-Adriatico is known as 'The Race of the Two Seas' because it crosses from the Tyrrhenian coast to the Adriatic coast of the Italian peninsula.
Tirreno-Adriatico was first held in 1966 and celebrates its 50th edition in 2015. The race was created as a final warm-up event for the Milano-Sanremo Classic, held three to four days later. But in recent years Italy’s second biggest stage race after the Giro d’Italia has evolved and developed to become an important objective in itself for many riders in the UCI WorldTour peloton.
Tirreno-Adriatico’s recent winners bear this out. Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, now three times a Grand Tour champion, won the race overall in 2012 and 2013, whilst Spain's Alberto Contador, with six Grand Tour victories to his name, succeeded the Astana rider in 2014 thanks to a devastating series of long-range mountain attacks at Cittareale and Guardiagrele. Contador’s victory was hugely important: not only did it end a long drought of victories for Spanish riders in Tirreno-Adriatico (since Oscar Freire in 2005), it also marked Contador’s first top-level success in over a year following his below-expectations season in 2013.
Contador and Nibali will clash again in the Italian event in 2015 as they fight for the race leader's blue jersey and the overall winner's trident-shaped trophy. It will be their first, but perhaps not their last, key duel for stage racing supremacy in the upcoming season.
Race organiser RCS Sport has confirmed that the 2015 edition of Tirreno-Adriatico will start in the town of Lido di Camaiore, northern Tuscany, with its usual team time trial. The rest of the race will be just as challenging as in previous years. Hilly, technically complex stages will take the race across central Italy, with finishes in Cascina, Arezzo, Castelraimondo, Terminillo, Porto Sant'Elpidio and San Benedetto del Tronto. Terminillo hosts the important mountain finish of the seven days of racing, while the final stage on the seafront in San Benedetto del Tronto is once again a short but intense individual time trial where every second will be vital for securing victory.