Tirreno-Adriatico queen stage cancelled due to snow
Due to heavy snow in the region, the organizers have been forced to cancel stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico completely. Bad roads and the hilly terrain made it impossible to plot an alternative route.
Race organiser RCS Sport and chief race judge Jerome Lappartient announced the decision in the press centre of the race following stage 4, confirming that even a Plan B and Plan C route or race were impossible to put in place due to expected bad weather on Sunday.
“Considering the forecasts, we’ve agreed that there are not the conditions to race the stage tomorrow,” race director Mauro Vegni said. “The weather is expected to worsen. Even today, my people were on all the stage to check things. Unfortunately, conditions aren’t suitable to hold the race, especially as things will get worse. We’ve decided not to risk the riders health.
“The alternative stage route that we’d presented is not possible because snow is expect over 700 metres, there a risk of snowing on all the climbs of the stage and so we couldn’t risk stopping the riders mid-stage.”
Tirreno-Adriatico will continue on Monday with stage six to Cepagatti. The overall classification is likely to be decided by Tuesday’s final time trial stage in San Benedetto del Tronto. Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep) leads Damiano Caruso, Greg and Avermaet and Tejay van Garderen of BMC by nine seconds. Bob Jungels (Trek Segafredo) is fifth overall at 11 seconds.
