For De Lie, it will be his very first Tirreno-Adriatico. In his view, it’s an excellent seven-day race to further build his form ahead of the classics. “The base is already there of course. I’ve had a good winter and I came back from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with a very good feeling,” De Lie explains. “Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne was a different story. I thought I had the legs, and we also had a plan, but it just didn’t work out. In any case, the good feeling is there. I trained for six more days in Belgium in beautiful spring weather, and now it’s about continuing to build towards Denain, Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders.”
Lotto–Intermarché lines up at the Corsa dei Due Mari with a large part of its classics core. Alongside De Lie, Liam Slock and Cédric Beullens will start, as well as Jenno Berckmoes and Huub Artz. They will be joined by Georg Zimmermann and Lennert Van Eetvelt. “This week is a great opportunity to further warm up and fine-tune our sprint train towards the classics. There are several chances. The final stage to San Benedetto del Tronto, of course. And who knows, maybe stage two as well. Tirreno includes a number of stages of more than 200 kilometres. That’s perfect to keep getting better and better. And if we get the chance to go for the win, we certainly won’t let it slip.”
Tirreno-Adriatico begins today with an 11.5-kilometre time trial in Lido di Camaiore. Lennert Van Eetvelt will be the first Lotto–Intermarché rider to roll down the start ramp at 12:52, while Huub Artz will be the last at 15:15.
Van Eetvelt crashed heavily at Strade Bianche and was therefore forced to abandon the race after 100 kilometres. However, he completed his training yesterday and felt good on the bike, after which it was jointly decided that he would start as planned.
