The race was won by Spain's Alberto Contador of Tinkoff–Saxo,[1] who took the lead after winning his second successive stage on the fifth stage – following on from a win in the race's queen stage to Cittareale – and held the lead until the finish in San Benedetto del Tronto, to become the first Spanish rider to win the race since Óscar Freire in 2005.[2] Contador won the general classification by two minutes and five seconds over runner-up Nairo Quintana of the Movistar Team,[3] while Contador's teammate Roman Kreuziger completed the podium,[4] nine seconds behind Quintana and two minutes and fourteen seconds down on Contador.[5]
In the race's other classifications, Cannondale's Peter Sagan was the winner of the red jersey for the points classification,[6] amassing the highest number of points during stages at intermediate sprints and stage finishes, and Marco Canola was the winner of the mountains classification for the Bardiani–CSF team.[7] Quintana also won the white jersey for the young rider classification,[6] as he was the highest placed rider born in 1989 or later, while the Ag2r–La Mondiale squad won the team classification, placing riders Jean-Christophe Péraud and Domenico Pozzovivo inside the top ten overall.[8]
The final time trial was almost irrelevant from the winner's point of view as Alberto Contador[1] had more than two minutes in hand on next best placed rider Nairo Quintana of the Movistar Team. There were some changes further down the GC as a result of the time trial though as Jean-Christophe Péraud moved above Julián Arredondo in to 4th place and Michele Scarponi moved up to the top ten as a result of a strong ride.
As Tirreno–Adriatico was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Four other squads were given wildcard places to the race,[9] completing the 22-team peloton.
^Arribas, Carlos (18 March 2014). "En el cielo de Contador" [Contador in heaven]. El País (in Spanish). Ediciones El País, S.L. Retrieved 18 March 2014.