Mikel Landa's Movistar squad will be the first of 22 teams to start Wednesday's Tirreno-Adriatico stage 1 team time trial. Movistar will roll out for the flat Lido di Camaiore 21.5km stage at 2 pm sharp with five-minute intervals between the 21 teams to follow.
Team time trial world champions Team Sunweb are the last team to start at 3:45 pm and are expected to finish at 4 pm.
The teams will head out from Lido di Camaiore for 10km on the flat and straight coastal road before making the turn around at Forte dei Marmi. A time check will also be made at the turn point before the teams head back to Lido di Camaiore on the other side of the road.
As the teams will be racing on the same road, they will be able to see their rivals on the way to and back from the turnaround.
BMC Racing Team has won the opening team time trial for the last two years with Quick-Step Floors running second on both occasions. The two teams are likely to again be front runners but are not the only favourites. Sky with Chris Froome, second off at 14:05pm, and Mitchelton-Scott, 11th at 14:50 pm, also bringing strong chrono squads to Italy. Team Sunweb though have the advantage of starting last and will be confident world time trial champion Tom Dumoulin can deliver them to victory.
Peter Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe team will be the penultimate starters at 15:40 pm.
For the full 2018 Tirreno-Adriatico race preview, click here and to subscribe to the Cyclingnews Podcast, click here. We will have live coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico from Wednesday, March 7.
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