The 2011 Tirreno–Adriatico was the 46th running of the Tirreno–Adriatico cycling stage race, often known as the Race of two seas. It started on 9 March in Marina di Carrara and ended on 15 March in San Benedetto del Tronto and consisted of seven stages, including a team time trial to begin the race and an individual time trial to conclude it. It was the third race of the 2011 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won by rider Cadel Evans, who claimed the leader's blue jersey on stage five before a stage win on stage six. Evans' winning margin over runner-up Robert Gesink () was 11 seconds, as Gesink overhauled both Ivan Basso of and 's Michele Scarponi on the final time trial stage. Scarponi – winner of the fourth stage – completed the podium, 15 seconds down on Evans.
In the race's other classifications, Gesink's second place overall won him the white jersey for the highest placed rider aged 25 or under, and Scarponi took home the red jersey for amassing the highest number of points during stages at intermediate sprints and stage finishes. rider Davide Malacarne won the King of the Mountains classification, with finishing at the head of the teams classification.
Teams The Tirreno–Adriatico was part of the 2011 UCI World Tour, so all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to attend. Two UCI Professional Continental teams were awarded wildcards. These were the team of defending champion Stefano Garzelli and the team of Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti, both of whom were present in the race.
The full list of participating teams is:
Race previews and favorites
Numerous notable riders were present in the race peloton, though their reasons for attending varied slightly. Top stage racers like Cadel Evans, Ivan Basso, Robert Gesink, Vincenzo Nibali, Joaquim Rodríguez, Andy Schleck, and Marco Pinotti were present. Evans' attendance was mainly for racing kilometers before attempting to win the Tour de France. Basso, who likewise planned to peak at the Tour de France, came to the race hoping for overall victory. He named Gesink as a potential rival, and Gesink for his part claimed Basso as a rider he fears. Schleck, Nibali, and Evans were named by one pre-race analysis as possible contenders, but not favorites, due to their plans to be at peak form later in the season.
Other riders named as contenders included Philippe Gilbert, Damiano Cunego, Thomas Löfkvist, David Millar, Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti and Edvald Boasson Hagen. 2010's top two, Stefano Garzelli and Michele Scarponi, both returned, but as the race had no time trial in 2010 and had two in 2011, their chances were diminished due to their relatively weak time trial skills. Other notable riders present in the field included 2008 winner Fabian Cancellara, American time trial specialist David Zabriskie, Italian classics rider and former Tirreno–Adriatico podium finisher Alessandro Ballan, former Italian national champion Filippo Pozzato, 2010 Giro d'Italia runner-up David Arroyo, and Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen.
Despite there being only two flat stages (the first two road race days), many top-tier sprinters started the race, as the Tirreno–Adriatico is traditionally considered to be excellent preparation for Milan–San Remo. Every Milan–San Remo winner since Andrei Tchmil in 1999 raced Tirreno–Adriatico (rather than Paris–Nice) beforehand. Tyler Farrar, Tom Boonen, Alessandro Petacchi, André Greipel, world champion Thor Hushovd, the aforementioned McEwen, and the last two Milan–San Remo winners Mark Cavendish and Óscar Freire all started the race.
The stage 1 team time trial was the first in the Tirreno–Adriatico's 46-year history. The individual time trial returned in stage 7, after not being present in 2010. Along with the two flat stages and the two time trials were three hilly stages. While there were no exceptionally high passes visited in the race, each of the hilly stages was long and featured several small, steep ascents. Stages 4 and 5 were both in length, which is long for stages in a multi-day race. The five road races covered in total.
Stages
Stage 1 9 March 2011 – Marina di Carrara, , team time trial (TTT)
The race of the two seas began with a flat team time trial starting and ending in Marina di Carrara in Tuscany on the Tyrrhenian coast. The course cut inland briefly, but doubled back and ended less than a kilometer from where it started.
The Dutch team was the first out of the starthouse, finishing with six of their eight riders in a time of 18' 08". The stage's main favorites took the course later, and each fell short of the time set. had a slow start, but picked up speed as their ride wore on, finishing second nine seconds slower than Rabobank. and , winners of the TTT in the respective last two editions of the Giro d'Italia, finished third and fifth at 10 and 22 seconds off Rabobank's time. sprinter André Greipel crashed in the warmups for the TTT and suffered numerous facial injuries. He rode the time trial with several bandages on his head, and abandoned the race before stage 2 with his left eye swollen completely shut.
The team, driven by world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, had trouble retaining the minimum of five riders. Tom Stamsnijder fell off the group's pace outside the final kilometer and Cancellara, likely unaware, kept drilling his squad to get them to the line as fast as possible. Their time was not taken until Stamsnijder finished, several seconds after the first four riders, giving them seventh place at 29 seconds back. The squads of Michele Scarponi, Giovanni Visconti, and defending champion Stefano Garzelli all lost considerable time, finishing 37, 55, and 47 seconds off the pace respectively. Lars Boom took the first blue jersey as race leader since he had been the first Rabobank rider to cross the finish line, but more significant was the time in hand the result meant for Robert Gesink against his rivals for the overall classification.
Stage 1 result TeamTime 1 18' 08" 2 + 9" 3 + 10" 4 + 11" 5 + 22" 6 + 26" 7 + 29" 8 + 30" 9 + 33" 10 + 37" General Classification after Stage 1 CyclistTeamTime 1 18' 08" 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 0" 7 + 9" 8 + 9" 9 + 9" 10 + 9"
Stage 2 10 March 2011 – Carrara to Arezzo,
The profile for the first road race stage was largely flat, with two small climbs coming about two-thirds of the way in. The course was easterly, heading from the start town of Carrara to the frazione of Indicatore in Arezzo.
Despite the stage being all but certain to end in a field sprint, Javier Aramendia, Leonardo Giordani, and Olivier Kaisen tried their luck with a breakaway after just . They were able to increase their advantage by two minutes at one point when the peloton was caught behind a closed railroad crossing, and the race jury decided that the breakaway would not have to stop while the peloton did. When their advantage hit 7'30", the chase, led largely by , began in earnest. Tom Boonen and Mark Cavendish were both gapped off during the chase. Boonen finished 91 seconds back on the day, and though Cavendish did rejoin the leading group, he was not a factor in the sprint finish. The three-man breakaway was caught from the finish line, leaving Kaisen's teammate Vicente Reynés to try a counter-move, but he was never allowed more than 30 seconds' advantage. A large group sprint indeed took place, won by Tyler Farrar after a strong leadout from world champion Thor Hushovd.
Stage 2 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 1" 3 + 1" 4 + 1" 5 + 1" 6 + 1" 7 + 1" 8 + 8" 9 + 10" 10 + 10"
Stage 3 11 March 2011 – Terranuova Bracciolini to Perugia,
Stage 3 was also flat, heading southeasterly to Perugia in the region of Umbria. A short point-awarding climb occurred before the finish line.
A lone rider formed the day's breakaway. Daniel Sesma slipped ahead of the peloton after only . Given the stage's flat profile and the limited power one rider can muster on his own, he was allowed an advantage of nearly ten minutes at one point, before the chase began. When he was caught, at the to go mark, the team took to the front of the field to try to set up an attack by their leader Giovanni Visconti. Visconti never had much of an advantage, but the work done by his team did put sprinters like Mark Cavendish into more difficulty than anticipated on the short climb that preceded the finish. For the second day in a row, Cavendish had to chase back on to the main field prior to the mass sprint finale. In the sprint, world champion Thor Hushovd again led out race leader Tyler Farrar, but may have been too strong in so doing, as he briefly opened up a gap on his team leader. Cavendish lost the wheel of his leadout man Mark Renshaw, and again failed to factor into the finish. Hushovd's early leadout left Farrar to go for the finish line from out, which proved too far as Juan José Haedo was able to come around the American at the last moment and just pip him at the line for the victory. Farrar, however, retained the race leadership for another day.
Stage 3 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 5" 3 + 6" 4 + 8" 5 + 8" 6 + 8" 7 + 8" 8 + 8" 9 + 15" 10 + 17"
Stage 4 12 March 2011 – Narni to Chieti,
In stage 4, the peloton nearly reached the Adriatic coast, ending in Chieti in Abruzzo just a few kilometers away. The course was hilly, with a climb and a descent early on and several short but steep climbs toward the finish.
The first of two very long stages began with a moment of silence in commemoration of the lives lost in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, led by 's Fumiyuki Beppu, the only Japanese rider in the race. Beppu's family was safe, and he chose to continue in the race.
After , a leading trio came clear of the peloton. These were Mikaël Cherel, Gorazd Štangelj, and Sebastian Lang. Their lead exceeded 15 minutes at one point, the most advantage given to a breakaway so far in the race. The mid-course hills took their toll and the leaders' time gap steadily fell as the day went on. Lang was dropped after he punctured and could not chase back on, leaving Cherel and Štangelj alone in front of the race. Their fatigue evident, Cherel tried to ride away from Štangelj with left to race, but he could not muster much of an attack, and he was brought back later after riding with a very slow cadence and a large gear for those 10 km.