This year's Tirreno-Adriatico featured classic Italian scenery, a string of blistering sprint finishes, and a key 26km time trial on stage 5 that largely determined the overall win for CSC's world champion, Fabian Cancellara.

Like France's Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico is seen as a key indicator of which riders are on form for this Saturday's Milan-San Remo. The 43rd edition of the Race Between the Seas offered a less mountainous tune-up then the French race, but featured more sprints that riders like Boonen, Freire, Petacchi, Illiano and Bettini hope will prepare them for the famous finish along the Via Roma this weekend.