While eight of its riders battle in France during Paris-Nice, the Movistar Team will take the start on Wednesday of the other big WorldTour stage race in the beginning of the cycling spring: the 50th Tirreno-Adriatico. The Italian event features, just like in previous years, two time trials - an opening TTT in the Lido di Camaiore (23km) and the traditional, closing ITT in San Benedetto (10km) - together with as many mountain stages: the one to Castelraimondo (Saturday 14), with two climbs of the Crispero hill, and the tough finish of Monte Terminillo (Sunday 15).

Nairo Quintana will be back into racing, after his GC podium in the Tour de San Luis and a crash sustained late in the Colombian road race championships, with a powerful roster by his side. Costa Rica's Andrey Amador, Italians Giovanni Visconti and Adriano Malori - the latter victorious in the San Benedetto TT in 2014 - and Spaniards Javi Moreno, Jonathan Castroviejo, Fran Ventoso and Jesús Herrada complete the eight-man group by the telephone squad, with José Luis Jaimerena and Chente García Acosta as sports directors.