The 2012 Tirreno–Adriatico was the 47th running of the Tirreno–Adriatico cycling stage race, often known as the Race of two seas. It started on 7 March in Donoratico and ended on 13 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 2012 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won by Italy's Vincenzo Nibali of , after recording a quicker time in the race-ending time trial than 's Chris Horner and 's Roman Kreuziger, and overhauled both riders for victory; during the race, Nibali also won the race's queen stage to Prati di Tivo. Nibali also took home the red jersey for amassing the highest number of points during stages at intermediate sprints and stage finishes, and won the general classification by fourteen seconds over runner-up Horner. Kreuziger completed the podium, 12 seconds behind Horner and 26 seconds down on Nibali.
In the race's other classifications, Wout Poels of won the white jersey for the highest placed rider born in 1987 or later by placing eighth overall in the general classification, while rider Stefano Pirazzi won the King of the Mountains classification, and finished at the head of the teams classification.
Teams As Tirreno–Adriatico was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Four other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 22-team peloton.
The 22 teams that competed in the race were:
Stages
Stage 1 7 March 2012 — San Vincenzo to Donoratico, , team time trial (TTT)
Following the introduction of a race-opening team time trial by organisers in 2011, the 2012 event began in the same fashion with a short test between the towns of San Vincenzo and Donoratico; both of which are synonymous within Italian cycling as the start and finish towns of the early-season Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi race. were the first team to set off from the start, and set the early benchmark with a time of 19' 19", but only held the top spot for a short period. The third team on the course, – winners of the 2011 Tour de France team time trial, and a time trial in February's Tour of Qatar – were touted as favourites for the stage by several team personnel, and lived up to that, as the team went under the nineteen-minute barrier, with a time of 18' 58". Another fancied team was , but they fell six seconds shy of the time of .
After struggling to maintain five riders in the train during the 2011 team time trial as , were once again highly tipped, with four-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara among their ranks, and only just claimed the lead from , besting their time by less than a second. However, the eventual stage-winning time came from the team, newly formed for the 2012 season. Following practice for the discipline prior to the race, came into the race with no real contender for the overall race but set a goal to win the team time trial; the team met their goal, recording a time of 18' 41", surpassing the mark of by seventeen seconds. As Matthew Goss was the first of the team's riders to cross the line, he was entitled to wear the race's first azzurra jersey, while Cameron Meyer was also part of the train at the finish and thus was the best placed rider under the age of 25. Sporting director Matt White later expressed his delight at the team's run, and was surprised at the team's large margin of victory.
Outside of the top five placed teams, as Roman Kreuziger's team rounded out the top five, several of the teams with general classification favourites suffered arduous runs in the stage. Defending race-winner Cadel Evans' and 2011 team time trial winners were caught out due to atmospheric conditions; a change in wind direction caused both teams to lose almost a minute to on the stage, finishing 16th and 17th respectively of the 22 teams contesting the race. and , the teams of the main Italian hopes for the race – Michele Scarponi and Vincenzo Nibali – also lost more than 45 seconds to the stage-winners. finished eleventh, while recorded a fifteenth-place finish on the stage.
Stage 1 Result TeamTime 1 2 + 17" 3 + 17" 4 + 23" 5 + 30" 6 + 38" 7 + 39" 8 + 40" 9 + 43" 10 + 45"General Classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 5" 7 + 17" 8 + 17" 9 + 17" 10 + 17"
Stage 2 8 March 2012 — San Vincenzo to Indicatore,
Diego Caccia of instigated the breakaway of the day, and was joined shortly after by a rider from the team, with Stefano Pirazzi joining Caccia out front. Caccia and Pirazzi quickly stepped up the pace to pull clear of the peloton, fronted by the team of race leader Matthew Goss. By the time the lead duo reached the first climb of the race, coming after around in Volterra, with Pirazzi taking maximum points, their lead was close to eight minutes. reduced their advantage steadily, with Svein Tuft controlling the tempo on the front of the main field, knocking the advantage down to five minutes by the second categorised climb after . Pirazzi again crossed the line first ahead of Caccia, and thus guaranteed himself the first green jersey of the race for mountains classification leader. Their advantage stayed largely between four-and-a-half and five minutes before entering the finishing circuit, in length, at Indicatore for the first of two laps.
and joined at the head of the main field and set about cutting into the lead duo's advantage, and by the time the first lap was complete, the gap was under a minute; within the next , the breakaway was over after around clear. With again controlling the pace of the main pack, Yaroslav Popovych () attacked inside the final , causing two other riders – Enrico Gasparotto of and Fabio Taborre of – to follow suit, but all three were swallowed up shortly after. Gasparotto's team-mate Paolo Tiralongo then launched an attack with 's Greg Van Avermaet at to go, but to no avail as they were both caught outside Indicatore. A large crash with to go reduced the number of contenders for the sprint, where tried to lead it out for Tyler Farrar, the stage-winner in Indicatore in 2011. Farrar held the lead until the closing metres as Mark Cavendish accelerated past him, following a lead-out from Edvald Boasson Hagen, to record his fourth victory of the season ahead of a closing Óscar Freire () and Farrar. Cavendish moved into fifth place overall, and assumed the lead of the points classification.
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 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 13" 6 + 13" 7 + 17" 8 + 17" 9 + 17" 10 + 17"
Stage 3 9 March 2012 — Indicatore to Terni,
rider Filippo Savini broke away from the field almost from the start of the stage, and managed to get clear without a breakaway companion. The main field decided not to follow him closely to begin with, as he was not a factor in the overall classification; over nine minutes behind overnight leader Matthew Goss of the team. Savini's lead grew to over eleven minutes at one point during the stage, but due to windy conditions and the peloton stepping up the pace, it was quickly reduced to around 7' 30" with just over remaining on the stage. Savini gained maximum points on the road; crossing the line first at the two intermediate sprints – gaining six bonus seconds in the process – and also crested the climb at Todi first, with team-mate Stefano Pirazzi maintaining his lead in that competition by crossing second.
Savini's brave salvo off the front of the pack ended with around , as led the chase of him during the stage. Many of the sprinters' teams launched themselves frontwards in order to set themselves up for the finish in Terni, coming on cobblestones in the town centre. With no further attacks getting away, it eventually came down to a sprint finish; looked to get Tyler Farrar the stage victory, but were caught out by an early sprint from 's Edvald Boasson Hagen, who had been expected to lead-out for team-mate Mark Cavendish, but with Cavendish not in his best shape – despite picking up two bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint – it was left to Boasson Hagen to contest for the honours; taking his team's tenth victory of the season. André Greipel was close behind in second for , ahead of 's Peter Sagan, Farrar, Manuel Belletti () and Goss, who maintained his race lead.
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 + 3"General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 3" 3 + 3" 4 + 3" 5 + 13" 6 + 13" 7 + 14" 8 + 20" 9 + 20" 10 + 20"
Stage 4 10 March 2012 — Amelia to Chieti,
Prior to the running of the stage, its parcours was changed the night before due to poor weather conditions, although the slight rerouting reduced the stage's total distance to . On the stage itself, seven riders from six different teams, including mountains classification leader Stefano Pirazzi formed a part of the breakaway. The main field decided not to follow them closely to begin with, with the lead increasing dramatically in the early stages, reaching an ultimate maximum gap of around twelve minutes. With Pirazzi in the lead group, it enabled the rider to extend his already substantial lead in the mountains classification, taking maximum points on the first two climbs of the stage.
The peloton, led by a combined front between the , , and teams enabled the gap between the main field and the breakaway septet to be cut sufficiently, dropping under five minutes at the stage's halfway point, and by to go, the gap was just 90 seconds, and a catch seemed a certainty. With the peloton closing, Pavel Brutt () and Manuele Boaro of both launched solo attacks in order to maintain their move ahead of the advancing pack. Boaro and Brutt were both caught outside of to go before the finish in Chieti. Another crash split the field once again, and continued to hold front at the head of the peloton as it moved towards the finish. Johnny Hoogerland launched a late attack for , but was usurped by 's Danilo Di Luca and rider Peter Sagan. Three other riders – Sagan's team-mate Vincenzo Nibali, Roman Kreuziger of and rider Chris Horner – joined up with the lead duo, and this pentet did battle for the stage honours. Kreuziger and Nibali both launched bids for victory, but it was Sagan that prevailed, ultimately. Horner's gain for making this small group was to assume the race lead, from 's Matthew Goss.
Stage 4 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 + 8" 7 + 10" 8 + 12" 9 + 12" 10 + 12"General Classification after Stage 4 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 7" 3 + 13" 4 + 21" 5 + 22" 6 + 30" 7 + 32" 8 + 34" 9 + 35" 10 + 36"
Stage 5 11 March 2012 — Martinsicuro to Prati di Tivo,
The race's queen stage consisted of three categorised climbs over the parcours, including two climbs to over ; the Piano Roseto, a climb of just over , and also the climb to the mountain-top finish at Prati di Tivo, which crested out at ; a shorter climb of , at an average gradient of just over 7%. Three riders – 's Jens Debusschere, rider Egoi Martínez and Kristof Goddaert of – advanced clear of the main field after of the stage, and managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of around ten-and-a-half minutes at one point during the early running of the stage. Goddaert was dropped on the Piano Roseto, as his two rivals looked to step up their pace in advance of the -led peloton, who had been cutting into their lead quite effectively; reducing their gap out front from around 10' 30" at the start of the climb to a much smaller margin of 3' 30" by its conclusion.