The 2024 edition of Tirreno – Adriatico comes down to the time trial. It will be contested over 10 completely flat kilometers.
The stage favorite is Würtz, it will probably take another puncture for him not to win. But there is much more tension in the GC. Vansevenant has 45 seconds on Pidcock, slightly more on a number of other puncheurs, most notably Gidich at 1’17, and 1’28 on quality time trialists like Evenepoel, Plapp, and Geoghegan Hart. Evenepoel and Geoghegan Hart make the favorites list.
The First 72 Riders
Overview
There are 17 riders who made the front group on all three hilly stages (aside from the time lost to Vansevenant on Stage 3 and the 11 seconds lost by a few of them on stage 6 aside). They are the riders likely to decide the GC. The rest we split into two groups. The top TT riders are spread across the two groups. Norsgaard and Atkins are in this group and Würtz will start in position 108.
Recap
Atkins is the first serious TT rider on the course, he sets the new best time beating Monk by 31 seconds, but he is almost immediately bested by Marchewka by fractions.
Those times give some confidence to Fastned as the quality gap between Monk and Marchewka is not dissimilar from that between Geoghegan Hart and Vansevenant, and 31 seconds isn’t close to threatening the GC leader.
Stash comes in third, 13 seconds down, showing that prologue specialists can be competitive.
Norsgaard performs as expected and takes over the hot seat, 3 seconds better than Marchewka.
John takes over 4th, 14 seconds down. Soon after Abolaji replaces him in 4th, 9 seconds down.
Bazhkou goes fractions better than Abolaji and takes 4th. Hulgaard further improves the 4th place time to +0’07.
Würtz is on the course, he was 4 seconds up at the time check. He doubles that to 8 seconds at the end.
Larsen, one of the best prologue riders in the field and a solid TTer, just misses out on 2nd, finishing slightly slower than Norsgaard, he is on the podium for now.
He is the last challenger in this group. Three Danes atop the leaderboard after 74 riders.
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Norsgaard held the hot seat before the World Champion came through.
Würtz does his thing.
Hot Seat
Starting Slot
Name
Time
Improvement
164
Holm Jorgensen
12'06
-
162
Pedersen
12'00
0'06
161
Monk
12'00
0'00
160
Atkins
11'29
0'31
159
Marchewka
11'29
0'31
140
Norsgaard
11'26
0'03
108
Würtz
11'17
0'08
Standings with 72 Riders Finished
Spoiler
The Next 75 Riders
Overview
The second group includes most of the rest of the top TTers. Notably, Oliveira (37th), Hayter (35th) and Herregodts (27th).
Recap
Lampawog puts up the first top 10 time in the group +0’16, 7th. His teammate, Gunnlaugsson, goes 1 spot better, +0’14.
American veteran Craddock, goes a little faster and takes over 6th, +0’12.
Fernandes was second at the time check but fades and finishes off the podium in 4th, +0’09. Oliveira does manage to break the Danish stranglehold on the podium, he finishes 3 seconds down on Würtz
Shikai finishes in 8th, 12 seconds down. His GC hopes died in the hills.
Hayter gives cycleYorkshire two on the podium, he is 4 seconds slower than Würtz, 3rd place behind his teammate Oliveira as well.
Kung also had outside hopes for the GC that didn’t materialize – he does put in a good ride on this stage, +0’07 he is in 4th. Jura have hopes to win the teams competition, with two in the top 10 they are gaining time on Gazelle right now.
Herregodts splis the cycleYorkshire pair and takes over 3rd, 4 seconds behind the leader. He was probably the last rider with a shot at beating Würtz for the stage.
Hänninen is the last rider in the group, finishes in 30th, 25 seconds down. But he started the day with 30+ seconds on the rest of the field so he is the GC leader as we move into the last group.
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Oliveira shows off his Portuguese National Champion’s jersey.
Herregodts in King Power’s pink and black.
Hot Seat
Starting Slot
Name
Time
Improvement
108
Würtz
11'17
-
Standings with 147 Riders Finished
Spoiler
The Final 17 Riders
Overview
The first 8 riders to go start the day 1’28 down on Vansevenant. The next 4 are at 1’17, while the remaining 5 earned bonus seconds and range from 1'09 to 45 seconds down.
Recap
Plapp is the first to finish, he loses 13 seconds, which puts him in 13th on the day. That is lucky enough to give him the GC lead.
He holds off Aleotti who loses 20 seconds, but not Geoghegan Hart who loses 9 seconds, good enough for 8th on the stage.
Errazkin loses 32 seconds, he is the slowest of this group so far, but he stays ahead of Hänninen. Ardila loses 40 seconds, he also holds off the Finn but by just 2 seconds.
Evenepoel loses 9 seconds, he is ahead of Geoghegan Hart on the leaderboard by milliseconds, we will see if that holds in the GC.
Demare loses 1’13, not really his discipline, he will drop behind Hänninen.
Groves is much better he loses 39 seconds. He shows his toughness in hanging with some much stronger puncheurs. He won’t win but right now he is only behind Evenpoel, Geoghegan Hart, Plapp, Aleotti and Errazkin.
We are into the 1’17 group now. They need to lose no more than 20 seconds on Würtz to take over the GC lead.
De Bie loses 37 seconds, he won’t win. He slots in ahead of Errazkin but behind Aleotti in the GC.
Malecki loses 30 seconds, he moves ahead of his teammate Aleotti into 4th on the virtual GC. Gazelle will have two in the top 10 on GC.
Gesbert isn’t as strong on the TT bike, he loses 51 seconds. He will drop out of the top 10, maybe out of the top 15.
Pre-race favorite Gidich loses 22 seconds. He won’t be winning his second Tirreno-Adriatico. He is behind Evenepoel and Geoghegan Hart.
Next man is Higuita, he started the day with 8 bonus seconds. Given his TT skills he could have used a lot more. He loses 58 seconds. He will also drop out the top 10.
Yates limits his losses to 34 seconds on Würtz but only 25 to Evenepoel. He started the day with a 31 second cushion on the Belgian. Yates is the new GC leader.
Valter loses 38 seconds to Evenpoel (+0’47 on the stage), he had a 39 second cushion on Evenpoel, he just hangs on to virtual 2nd in the GC behind Yates. But the two riders left are both better TT riders.
Pidcock shows he is the master of all terrains adding 35th on this stage (+0’25) to his other accomplishments. He is the new GC leader but Vansevenant has a 45 second cushion to start the day.
It was pretty clear early on that Vansevenant couldn’t lose the GC without a disaster. And no disasters befall him, he finishes a very respectable 52nd on the stage, +0’32. He pushes Pidcock into 2nd.
As expected, Würtz wins the stage.
We could be seeing a lot of battles between Pidcock and Vansevenant in the future but this one goes to the Belgian as Pidcock settles for 2nd to his rival in the GC, young rider and points competition. A great race overall for the young guns, 5 of the top 10 on GC qualify for the young rider’s competition.
Jura’s superior TT skills are enough for them to take the team’s competition from Gazelle by 12 seconds.
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Pidcock wearing the points jersey borrowed from Vansevenant.
Vansevenant’s leader’s jersey coordinates well with Fastned blue.
Tirreno - Adriatico 
