The 51st  edition of Tirreno-Adriatico will take place from 9 March 2016 till 15 March 2016. In seven stages, the peloton will ride through the centre of Italy from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic coast. This year, the punchers and the climbers will get a few opportunities to win a stage, but also the time trialists will be happy with the route.

Lotto Soudal will participate with Rafael Valls Bart De Clercq, Maxime Monfort and Tiesj Benoot among others. Maxime Monfort and Rafael Valls give a preview.

“All riders stay in Italy after the Strade Bianche because the line-up for Tirreno-Adriatico is the same," Monfort said. "The days between these two races will be used to rest and to do some little trainings of about two hours. The Tirreno starts with a team time trial this year, a beautiful discipline. It’s something special but I like it though, you really need to ride as a team. The strong riders will do the bigger part of the work, if someone is very good then it’s difficult because you need to be vigilant with regard to the rest of the team. It will be a matter of giving your all without dropping the others. Even if you’re used to ride with each other, it remains very tough.

“In the past, I always participated in Paris-Nice. Last year I rode my first Tirreno-Adriatico. This race may be considered as a preparation for the Giro d’Italia because some stages in this Tirreno are also scheduled in the Giro. But I always aim for a good position on GC in every stage race. I’m very motivated and I’m in a good shape but if someone else of the team is better than me, then I’ll do my very best to defend his position as well as possible.

“After the Volta ao Algarve I had a good feeling, although I was a bit disappointed about my performance in the time trial. But okay, I get a new chance in Tirreno to do it better. The condition is good, the past two weeks I was able to train well. We start with a very decent team, I really look forward to this race.”

Rafael Valls is ready for his debut.

“I didn’t race since the Tour Down Under, because the riders who participated in this race got a rest period. When I came back from Australia, I did some trainings of about two hours during the first week. I took the time to recover. The weeks after that I trained more and longer in my home region. I really look forward to race after I’ve been out of competition for a month.

“It’s the first time that I participate in Tirreno-Adriatico. I aim for a top ten position on GC. The main competitors will be Kwiatkowski, Nibali, Valverde and Van Garderen. I expect that they will fight for the overall victory, they’re very good climbers and they can ride a decent time trial as well.

“Two time trials are scheduled in this stage race. That’s not my best discipline, but I’ve been working on it. We’ll do a recon of the course of the team time trial beforehand. That stage will be important for the GC, time gaps will already be created during this team time trial. The individual time trial is only ten kilometres long, that’s good for me. I’m interested in the second and fifth stage, I think I have a chance to obtain a stage win during these days.”

Line-up Lotto Soudal: “

Tiesj Benoot, Jens Debusschere, Bart De Clercq, Pim Ligthart, Tomasz Marczynski, Maxime Monfort, Jürgen Roelandts and Rafael Valls.