Tirreno-Adriatico stage 1: Wout van Aert tops Caleb Ewan in bunch sprint

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) out-gunned some of pro cycling’s fastest pure sprinters to win Wednesday’s opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, crossing the line just ahead of Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).

The win marks van Aert’s first pro road cycling victory of 2021, and it comes a month or so after he concluded his cyclocross campaign at the UCI world cyclocross championships in Belgium.

“I didn’t expect to win a race so quickly, especially since it was a fairly easy sprint,” van Aert told reporters at the finish. “So I have already taken a step forward since Strade Bianche. This is a great start ”

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Van Aert was put into a position to win by his Jumbo-Visma teammates in the fast final kilometers of the 156-kilometer stage, which started and finished in Lido di Camaiore. Van Aert surfed the wheels of UAE Team Emirates and then launched his sprint at the perfect moment, holding off Ewan in the push to the line.

“I was in [Gaviria’s] train. My teammates did a perfect job as I wanted to be in a good position on the last bridge just before starting the last kilometer,” van Aert said. “It is then important to switch on in time, when the speed is high.”

With his win van Aert becomes the race’s first leader. This year’s hilly route lacks a major summit finish, raising questions of whether van Aert or another classics star could win the overall.

Van Aert said he intends to battle for the overall.

“I will focus on the overall classification of the Tirreno-Adriatico, then I’ll have a few days to recover afterwards and of course, after last year’s win, I’m looking forward to trying to win Milano-Sanremo again. Coming here I was convinced that my shape was good. This win is good for the head and for the spirit of the team,” he said.

The victory is a sign that van Aert is approaching his top form ahead of his classics campaign. Over the weekend van Aert appeared to be a few watts shy of his rivals at Strade Bianche, and briefly lost pace before roaring back to a fourth-place finish. Van Aert is headlining Jumbo-Visma’s classics squad at the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and the spring’s other major one-day races.

Mathieu van der Poel focuses on helping teammate

This year’s Tirreno-Adriatico opened with a hilly route starting and finishing in the beachside town of Lido di Camaiore on Italy’s western coast. The route was comprised of three laps of a 24km circuit that took in the Monte Pitoro climb, before concluding with a flatter three loops of a 29km circuit around Camiore.

The early breakaway took flight inside the first 10km, with Mattia Bais (Adroni-Sidermerc), Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo-Kometa), Jan Bakelants (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Simone Velasco (Gazprom-RusVelo), Samuele Rivi (Eolo-Kometa), and Guy Niv (Israel Start-Up Nation) attacking from the group. The break settled into a rhythm, while behind, the peloton was controlled by Alpecin-Fenix, Deceuninck-Quick-Step, and Cofidis, among other teams.

As the gap came down from pressure from the peloton it was Rivi and Bais who attacked from the breakaway to try and stretch their move to the finish. The duo held on until 10km to go, but were eventually swamped, setting up the charge to the line.

Multiple sprint trains fought for control of the front inside 3km to go, with Jumbo-Visma banging bars with Lotto Soudal, Deceuninck-Quick-Step, and others. Hot off winning Strade Bianche, Mathieu van der Poel played the loyal teammate Wednesday. He surged to the front to help set up his Alpecin-Fenix sprinter Tim Merlier, who kicked to sixth.

In the charge to the line it appeared that Lotto Soudal was best positioned, with Jasper De Buyst charging ahead to set up Ewan. But van Aert stayed in the wheel and unleashed his charge at the right time to take the win.