Tirreno-adriatico preview

Sky big guns get ready to combine firepower

Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas will join forces for the first time this year at Tirrenoadriatico next week, as their Grand Tour preparation begins in earnest.

Team Sky considers the week-long Italian stage race “a perfect time” to race the two together ahead of bigger season goals.

The make-up of the race will also offer useful Grand Tour preparation, said Sky directeur sportif Matteo Tosatto: “Even with Thomas going on to the Tour later in the year, it offers plenty of climbing metres and a rare team time trial like he’ll face in the Tour.

“For Froome, it’s a chance to see the Italian roads, the tricky ones that are always up and down and twisty in the central regions like Umbria and Marche. Before or after the race, we can take the time to recon some nearby stages for the Giro.”

The race is bookended by time trials. “In the middle, you get a sprint stage but the rest are long hard stages, medium-mountains with the summit finish stage,” Tosatto added.

“It’s important for the Giro d’italia and also for the others going to the Classics like Michał Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon. And Thomas for Paris-roubaix, and of course, Liège-bastogne-liège.”

Froome last rode the race in 2013 when he won the summit finish climb but later got ambushed by Vincenzo Nibali and lost the race.

Tossato recalled: “Nibali dropped him on a wet stage with small but steep climbs ending with a flat finish that Peter Sagan won. Even if the weather has been good in the last editions of the Giro, these riding conditions will serve Froome well.”