Today Tirreno-Adriatico kicks off with an opening team time trial and Team Giant-Shimano will be on the start line with a team that is focused on the sprint with Marcel Kittel. The team gave its analysis of the stages while three of the riders took their time to speak about their expectations for the race.

The WorldTour races are coming thick and fast now and just days after the start of Paris – Nice we are lining up in Italy for the 49th edition of Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Team Giant-Shimano line-up for this week long stage race is: Nikias Arndt, Roy Curvers, Tom Dumoulin, Simon Geschke, Marcel Kittel, Tobias Ludvigsson, Tom Stamsnijder and Tom Veelers.

As has been the tradition at Tirreno-Adriatico for the past two years, the race gets underway with a team time trial on Wednesday, over 16.9km. Team time trialling is a technical discipline and very much different to rolling out a lead-out train, and the Team Giant-Shimano boys will be wanting to show that they have progressed in this discipline and get the race off to a start.

The first road stage will be the perfect opportunity for the sprinters to test each other, and Marcel will be looking to test his form after a period of training and preparation. There are three small climbs to tackle in the first half of the stage, but with a breakaway up the road, the peloton will probably only really get going in the second half – a long flat run in to the line in Cascina.

Stage 3 will offer up another chance for the Team Giant-Shimano lead-out train to get Marcel into a perfect position for the finish. Tom Veelers returns to the team here in Tirreno after missing the recent Driedaagse West Vlaanderen due to a knee problem. He will be a vital addition to the team in the final kilometre as he pilots Marcel into position for the last few hundred metres.

This will be the last opportunity for the fast men for a few days as the road soon turns upwards.

Stage 4 is the longest stage of the race, at 237km, and it is also the first hill finish of the race. The first half of the stage is a gentle flat start, until the first of three climbs starts at 140km in. This is followed by a longer second climb which crests at 174.9km, and then the final ramp to the line gets underway with 6km to race.

You can expect to see the Team Giant-Shimano riders going on the attack and looking to try to fight out the stage in a breakaway. In stages like this, anything can happen.

Following the first real test for the GC riders yesterday, stage 5 will see another attacking day and then a fast run-in to the finish in Guardiagrele. The stage rolls its way through the smaller hills before the tough test of the Passo Lanciano, a 12km climb with gradients of up to 13%. This ascent crests with 27km left to race and a long descent of 13km is followed by a short sharp ramp up to the finish. It will be a a case of how much advantage can a breakaway hold at the base of the final climb to the finish, and how many riders are left over the top of the day’s main climb.

Stage 6 of this year’s race reverts back to the flat lands and is a final chance for the sprinters to take a stage. The team will once again look to Marcel, depending on how well the previous two hilly stages have gone. With Nikias Arndt in the line-up, the guys have another sprinters card to play if Marcel wasn’t in contention for one reason or another.

The final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico is a pan-flat individual time trial to empty the tank at the end of a tough week of racing. With Tom Dumoulin and Tobias Ludvigsson already having shown strong performances against the clock on their Giant Trinity Advanced SL bikes this season, they will be looking to repeat this again here.

This final stage all depends on how hard the previous stages have been and how much power the guys have got left in their legs; it could definitely cause a surprise or two.

“The first goal of the race is to go for the sprint stages with Marcel. Besides that I think that we have some guys who are in good shape and they can pick a day to go for a result in the hillier stages or in the time trial.”

“I’m looking forward to the three sprint stages here, and to test myself again as the best sprinters are starting here at Tirreno-Adriatico. The legs are coming along after a very good training block last week and I’m looking forward to getting going again.”

“My training has been going well recently and I think we stand a good chance of getting a stage here at Tirreno. I personally am looking forward to the time trial and for the other days I will take it day by day and see how things are going.”

“The first goals for Tirreno are the sprint stages with Marcel. We have a good lead-out train here to support him for these and he has already showed his power this season in Dubai so he stands a good chance of a result.

“With our more opportunistic riders, like Tobias Ludvigsson, Simon Geschke and Tom Dumoulin we will be aiming to fight for a stage win on the hilly stages, and Tom and Tobias will also focus on the time trial.

“For the team time trial we want to progress in the discipline and test ourselves so the guys will be looking to get that right and perform well from the start.”

You can read our preview of the race here and of the first stage here.