Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 contenders – UAE Team Emirates-XRG can still dominate without Tadej Pogačar

Next week, the Spring Classics are interrupted for a big week of stage racing, with Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice taking over the WorldTour calendar and luring almost all of the top GC riders and sprinters to race in Italy and France. 

In Italy, the seven tough stages of Tirreno-Adriatico offer fertile training ground for all sorts of riders, from GC riders preparing for the Giro d’Italia, to sprinters testing their speed and Classics specialists getting the race days in before the Monuments start. 

With Jonas Vingegaard opting for Paris-Nice this year, and Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič and the injured Remco Evenepoel skipping racing at all this week, the racing in Italy looks to be very open with the second tier of GC riders getting a chance to lead their teams. In place of the so-called big four, Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates will spearhead a strong UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad, Jai Hindley will look to repeat his 2024 podium finish, and Simon Yates is making his debut for Visma-Lease a Bike.

As well as an open GC, there’s hot sprinting competition brewing as the battle to rack up wins continues, and there are some big names looking for opportunities in the race’s punchier stages, including hopefully a chance to see Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock go head to head. 

Can UAE Team Emirates-XRG continue their all-conquering start to 2025, or will a rival team pull something special out of the bag in the fight for the overall? Here are the key contenders for all the different storylines that will play out at Tirreno-Adriatico 2025.

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

UAE Team Emirates-XRG are coming to this race without Tadej Pogačar – who is only racing one-day races until the Critérium du Dauphiné – but such is the depth in their squad that they’re still big favourites to win the race. 

The first of two possible leaders is Juan Ayuso, who is racing Tirreno as he builds towards a GC bid at the Giro d’Italia. Still only 22, Ayuso is a highly accomplished climber and GC rider, and will be hoping to turn his stage win and runner-up finish at this race last year into a win, especially with Vingegaard, the rider who beat him in 2024, not racing this year. The opening TT should suit him again, and the slew of tough climbs offer plenty of opportunities to take time.

Ayuso only started his racing season at the weekend, racing the Faun-Ardèche Classic and Faun Drome Classic duo and winning the latter, so Tirreno is really his first big objective this season. He looks to be in good form and if he’s to prove his merit for sole leadership at the Giro, this race should be the place to do it.

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

For any other team, calling two riders serious GC contenders might be optimistic, but when it comes to UAE Team Emirates-XRG they could legitimately place two riders on the podium in Tirreno-Adriatico. Alongside Ayuso, Adam Yates will be looking to take his opportunities to be free from Tadej Pogačar and go for a result himself in Italy. 

Yates has already picked up a GC victory this year, winning the Tour of Oman overall last month, against a fairly strong climbing field, so his confidence and motivation should be high. With Ayuso, UAE will be able to implement a two-pronged attack, which could either help one rider win or even place them both within the top spots on hard stages. 

Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

Another rider who is at Tirreno to start their lead-in to the Giro is former maglia rosa winner Jai Hindley, who will lead Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in the absence of Primož Roglič. 

Hindley finished third here last year, and it’s the kind of week-long stage race where he should really be aiming at good results if he is to cement himself as a solid GC rider and alternative to Roglič. The Australian has already ridden a stage race this year, coming ninth overall at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, so there’s still some work to be done but the harder, longer Tirreno-Adriatico should suit him better. 

Time trials have previously been a sticking point for Hindley, but at only 9.9km, the stage 1 TT shouldn’t be too much of a threat to his overall chances, and having riders like Florian Lipowitz supporting him should bode well for the Queen stage to Frontignano.

Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Simon Yates to Visma-Lease a Bike was one of the most intriguing transfers of the off-season, and next week we’ll finally get to see how it plays out. 

Supposedly recruited as a super domestique for Jonas Vingegaard, it’s interesting that the team have split them up across Paris-Nice and Tirreno, potentially giving Yates a chance to go for a result himself. 

With Olav Kooij on the start list, Visma will have slightly split interests in Italy, but sending Attila Valter, Ben Tulett and Cian Uijtdebroeks alongside Yates certainly gives the impression of a team targeting the GC, and should give the Brit much better support than he’s had at this race in previous years. 

This is his first race ahead of a busy summer, but Yates often starts his season well and should be amongst the best riders here. 

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)

One of the few riders coming straight from Strade Bianche to Tirreno-Adriatico, Richard Carapaz has a busy schedule of stage races and one-days running into the Giro and Tour, somewhat bucking the trend of less racing before big goals. 

Tirreno will be a big test for the Ecuadorian, and begin to tell us where he sits amongst the GC contenders heading into the Giro. He’s raced a handful of times in France this season, taking a fairly lacklustre ninth at the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, so Carapaz and his team will be hoping that the tougher terrain in Italy will show off his form better. 

Young teammate Lukas Nerurkar was also expected to be on the squad but after crashing at Trofeo Laigueglia, and breaking his jaw, will have to head into surgery instead.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Tirreno-Adriatico was meant to be Mathieu van der Poel’s road debut, but the racing itch got too strong and the Dutchman made a surprise appearance at Le Samyn on Tuesday, which he subsequently won. 

Aiming for repeat wins at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix later this spring, Tirreno is hardly his biggest goal, but it’s a race that has always fitted into his preparations well, and he’s a rider who always races to win. Whilst some stages will be too hard, and some too sprint-friendly, there are some good in-between opportunities for Van der Poel – keep an eye on stages 4 and 5 in particular, or any day there’s a chance for the break. 

The cyclo-cross world champion is a confident player, so he’ll be keen to add another win to the tally and boost his esteem over his Classics competitors. 

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling)

Tom Pidcock is a rider transformed this year, and Tirreno-Adriatico is the next big test of his post-Ineos form. He took three wins across the AlUla Tour and Ruta del Sol – winning the former overall – and whilst he admitted that his Omloop Het Nieuwsblad ride was disappointing, he will be raring to take on his first WorldTour stage race of the season. 

The Brit has often been touted as a top one-day rider, but the signs are emerging that he may indeed be better suited to stage races, and the repeated chances they offer. There are some tough climbs to deal with in Italy, but he was climbing well in Spain, and there are plenty of punchy days that are suited to him. 

We haven’t seen Pidcock vs Van der Poel for quite some time now, but Tirreno could deliver that exciting rivalry once more. 

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)

Jonathan Milan is proving himself as perhaps the most powerful sprinter on the planet right now, and will be hoping to add to the four wins he’s already achieved this year. 

Where the Italian has really stepped up this year is his ability to get over tough climbs towards the finish of races, which has really diversified the kind of stages he’s able to win, and bodes well for Tirreno where nothing is ever totally straightforward.

After this, Milan is racing a stacked Classics program, so this is a chance to really tally up some more wins in pure sprints ahead of his Tour de France debut in the summer, and defend the points jersey he won in this race last year.

Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike)

However, Milan will be up against some stiff competition in the sprints this year with many of the fast men choosing Italy over Paris-Nice. One of Milan’s biggest rivals will be Olav Kooij, who was the dominant sprinter at the Tour of Oman and just took second at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, impressively beating the likes of Milan and Tim Merlier. 

This will be Kooij’s first time at Tirreno-Adriatico since 2022, having opted for – and won at – Paris-Nice the last two years, so it will be interesting to see how he takes to the terrain. 

He’s less of a power sprinter than Milan and doesn’t have his top-tier lead-out with him, but he’s a fast and canny rider who should see some good opportunities and a chance to test his sprint ahead of a return to the Giro d’Italia.

Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep)

Finally, you can’t overlook Soudal-QuickStep’s young rocket Paul Magnier. The 20-year-old hasn’t finished outside the top three once this season, most recently taking a trio of runner-up spots in the Figueira Champions Classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Le Samyn. 

Magnier showed his potential last year and is showing that he’s already able to rub shoulders with the very best riders, in the very best races. Tirreno will be a test as he’s only ridden one WorldTour stage race so far, but the Frenchman is looking so strong and hungry this year that he should definitely be contesting the win on the flat stages. 

He may not yet have the pure power to match his more mature competitors, but he’s certainly capable of adding to his haul of top-threes, and possibly even a big win on the right day. 

Outsiders

Israel-Premier Tech’s Derek Gee recently won O Gran Camiño in impressive fashion and will look to replicate some of the form that saw him excel at the Giro d’Italia two years ago.

Jayco AlUla come to this race without their new signing Ben O’Connor – he’s at Paris-Nice – but have seen promise in Elmar Reinders this season as an opportunist, whilst Filippo Zana will take on the GC and sprinter Dylan Groenewegen will look to improve on a poor start in the Middle Eastern races. 

Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) heads to Italy with boosted confidence after winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and with him and Magnus Cort his team have some real threats for the flatter stages. 

Mikel Landa is expected to take on some more GC responsibility for Soudal-Quick Step in Evenepoel’s absence and will head to Tirreno-Adriatico straight from Strade Bianche to chase a first individual win since 2021.