Tirreno-Adriatico (preview)

Powerful Movistar Team seeks for back-to-back overall wins in Tirreno-Adriatico, after Quintana's brilliant success in 2015

Following a series of bad luck episodes last Saturday at Strade Bianche, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) will put his sights back on a stagerace from Wednesday as he tackles the Tirreno-Adriatico, third event of the 2016 UCI WorldTour schedule.

The seven-day Italian race, spanning until Tuesday 15th, will test the whole telephone squad's strengths already from day one, with the opening TTT (23km) in Lido di Camaiore. A demanding finish in Pomarance (Thursday) and several climbs en route to Monte San Vicino (Sunday) will determine the overall outcome, together with the closing ITT (10km) in San Benedetto del Tronto.

The lineup, commanded by José Luis Jaimerena and Chente García Acosta, features Dani Moreno, Giovanni Visconti, Andrey Amador, Rory Sutherland and three of the Movistar Team's TT specialists: Alex Dowsett, Nelson Oliveira and Jasha Sütterlin. All of them will try to deliver their best performance in order to set up Valverde, as he seeks for back-to-back victories in the race following Nairo Quintana's maiden Blue win in 2015.