Last year’s three Grand Tour winners – Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) – will go wheel-to-wheel at Tirreno-Adriatico this week but Chris Froome (Team Sky) will miss the eagerly anticipated showdown.

The four finest Grand Tour riders of this generation were set to face off at the week-long Italian stage race – where Contador beat Quintana last year, one year on from Nibali winning the race – but illness for Froome means the quartet has become a fiercely-strong trio instead.

Froome announced his withdrawal today (Monday March 9), for the second year running after injury ruled him out 12 months ago, to deny fans an early chance to see the Team Sky rider go up against his biggest rivals.

With Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) – who will challenge the four for supremacy at the Tour de France this season – also set for Tirreno-Adriatico, the seven-stage race will provide an early insight as to the firework we can expect later in the season.

Bad weather in Tuscany means the race will no longer open with a team time trial on Wednesday, but a 5.7km individual time trial instead, and two flat stages follow. The GC men will be expected to come to the fore on the lumpy fourth stage to Castelraimondo and the Terminillo summit finish on stage five, before another flat stage and the concluding 10km individual time trial on stage seven.

Let’s take a closer look at the early-season form of the big three and consider what’s next for Froome after his withdrawal from the 50th edition of the Race of the Two Seas.