User:Formula164457/sandbox/2014 T-A

The 2014 Tirreno–Adriatico was the 49th edition of the Tirreno–Adriatico cycling stage race, often known as the Race of the Two Seas. It started on 12 March in Donoratico and ended on 18 March in San Benedetto del Tronto, and consisted of seven stages, including a team time trial to begin the race and an individual time trial to conclude it. It was the third race of the 2014 UCI World Tour season.

Participating teams
As Tirreno–Adriatico is a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams are invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Four other squads,, , and , were given wildcard places to the race, completing the 22-team peloton.

The 21 teams that are scheduled to compete in the race are:

Pre-race favourites
The startlist featured many riders capable of winning the general classification, while the likes of Chris Froome (injury) and Vincenzo Nibali (raced in Paris-Nice) did not make it into their team rosters. The overwhelming favourite was title holder Alberto Contador, with team-mate Roman Kreuziger more of a podium contender. Their main rivals were considered to be Domenico Pozzovivo, Michele Scarponi, Bauke Mollema, Cadel Evans, Pierre Rolland, Thibaut Pinot, Chris Horner, Nairo Quintana, Rigoberto Urán, Richie Porte and Robert Kišerlovski. Jean-Christophe Péraud, Janez Brajkovič, Stefano Pirazzi, Robert Gesink, Ivan Basso, Daniel Martin, Daniel Moreno, Damiano Cunego, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Igor Antón, Michał Kwiatkowski, Bradley Wiggins and Julián Arredondo were all tipped as underdogs, with all except for Pirazzi, Martin, Moreno and Van Den Broeck working for their team leaders.

As always Tirreno-Adriatico features some of the best sprinters in the world, with Peter Sagan, Arnaud Démare, Marcel Kittel, Heinrich Haussler, André Greipel, Gerald Ciolek and Mark Cavendish all after the sprint opportunities offered on stages 2, 3 and 6.

Classification leadership table
In the 2014 Tirreno-Adriatico, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, the leader received a blue jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the 2014 Tirreno-Adriatico, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.

Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a red jersey. In the points classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 10 in a stage. For winning a stage, a rider earned 12 points, 10 points for second, 8 for third, and one point fewer until tenth. Points towards the classification could also be acquired at intermediate sprint points during each stage, where bonus seconds were also offered. There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a green jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists, with each climb awarding 5, 3, 2, and 1 point for the top four at the top. The fourth jersey represented the young rider classification, marked by a white jersey. This was decided in the same way as the general classification, but only riders born after 1 January 1989 were eligible to be ranked in the classification. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.