Weekend Preview: Strade-Bianche, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico
Laying out the upcoming days of racing, from Saturday's Strade-Bianche, Sunday's Paris-Nice kickoff & Monday's opening TT at Tirreno-Adriatico
Strade-Bianche
The extremely exciting and gorgeous race over the white gravel roads of Tuscany is coming up tomorrow (Saturday) and will feature a thrilling showdown between 2022 winner, and the best current rider in the sport, Tadej Pogačar, against a series of extremely strong and technically capable riders like Matej Mohorič, Christophe Laporte, Tom Pidcock (2023 winner), Ben Healy, Valentin Madouas, plus many others.
2024 Course Profile (grey sections are gravel)
The young race, which has become a cornerstone of the spring calendar in just 18 years, features a more robust route that has been extended out to 215 kilometers in 2024 and sees the race scraping the lower end of Monument distances.
Expect to race to deliver striking scenery, copious amounts of climbing via short, steep hills, and a finish up a brutally steep 1.75km climb into the picturesque Piazza del Campo in Siena that almost always serves up a thrilling finale.
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Projected Winner: Tadej Pogačar
Potential Wildcards: Christophe Laporte, Tom Pidcock, Ben Healy, Valentin Madouas
Where/When to Watch:
Where: Max (USA), FloBikes (Canada), Discovery+ (Europe), FloBikes (Canada)
When: Saturday, March 2nd: Women: 5:30am - 7:30am / Men: 8:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EST (estimate)
Paris-Nice
Paris-Nice, the notoriously difficult Spring stage race from the cold and windswept landscape of Northern France to the Cote d'Azur starts this coming Sunday, and will feature a sneak peek between two of the four major contenders for the 2024 Tour de France, Primoz Roglič and Remco Evenepoel.
This Roglič/Evenepoel head-to-head, outside of giving us a re-match of their entertaining battle at last year’s Volta Catalunya, should give us clues about how Evenepoel will perform when the bright GC lights are on him at this summer’s Tour de France.
2024 Course Breakdown
The GC battle will be largely shaped by the 27 km-long team time trial, two uphill finishes, crosswinds, and most importantly, a notoriously explosive and tricky final circuit race on Nice.
The lack of an individual time trial, inclusion of multiple uphill finishes and the fact that he has won 10 out of his last 12 sub-Grand Tour stage races means Primož Roglič should be considered the heavy pre-race favorite, even if Remco Evenepoel arrives in top form.
Projected Overall Winner: Primož Roglič
Where/When to Watch:
Where: Peacock (USA) FloBikes (Canada), Discovery+/Eurosport (Europe)
When: Sunday, March 3th - Sunday, March 10th, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EST (estimate)
Tirreno-Adriatico
The seven-stage race sees the riders who want to avoid the wind, cold, and hard racing of Paris-Nice navigate the annual traverse from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic Sea through central Italy. While it conflicts with Paris-Nice in 2024, the race’s (likely) better weather and va bene racing style should present a nice counterbalance to the chaotic, and frankly, slightly unpleasant brutalist racing aesthetic at Paris-Nice.
It may be fun to speculate on how talented GC riders like Ben O’Connor, Jail Hindley, Simon Yates, Enric Mas, and Juan Auyso will fare against two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, but, if we are honest, assuming Vingegaard stays healthy and out of crashes, he is simply on another level to the sport’s other GC contenders at the moment and as close to unbeatable as a GC rider can be, as evidenced at last week’s O Gran Camiño.
With this in mind, most of the intrigue and interest from the race will be the subplot of which of the remaining GC contenders slot into the second tier, which will tell us what to expect at the Grand Tours later in the season.
Additionally, the sprint stages, which will feature Jasper Philipsen vs Tim Merlier vs Caleb Ewan vs Jonathan Milan vs Mark Cavendish, and a few other more than capable fastmen, should be thrilling to watch.
Projected Overall Winner: Jonas Vingegaard
Where/When to Watch:
Where: Max (USA), FloBikes (Canada), Discovery+ (Europe), FloBikes (Canada)
When: Monday, March 4th - Sunday, March 10th, 7:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. EST (estimate),
Bonus: Where to Watch Every Major Race in the USA in 2024
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