March 11, 2015 | Lido di Camaiore
Italian specialist from Movistar repeats splendid performance from closing time trial in 2014, becomes first GC leader in Tirreno-Adriatico after narrowly beating Fabian Cancellara (TFR)
After becoming a surprise victor exactly twelve months ago by beating Wiggins, Martin and Cancellara over the same 10km course that will close the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico, Adriano Malori has tasted the flavor of success again on Wednesday with a short victory over the Swiss rider in the 5.7km prologue of the ‘Race of the Two Seas’ in Lido di Camaiore. The Italian champion from the Movistar Team tackled the initial disadvantage of a course almost tailor-made for explosive riders -6’02” was the lapse between his start and finish- and completed a 53kph ride to overcome Australian Matthias Brändle (IAM) and hold the charge of the main GC favourites -with Nairo Quintana conceding 11″ to Urán, 10″ to Nibali and only 2″ against Contador, with Rodríguez 10″ behind-.
By only one second, Malori claimed his second success of the season -after winning the TT in the Tour de San Luis and losing by only 0.403 to Tony Martin in Algarve-, the 16th in his pro career and the eighth by the Movistar Team, the only WorldTour squad to have scored success in two different top-tier events so far in 2015. The Italian and his team-mates will now take on two predictable sprint finishes -Thursday’s route leading the peloton to Cascina over 153km from Camaiore-, before the Appennines sort things out between the race contenders on Saturday and Sunday.
REACTION / Adriano Malori: “I’m super happy. This was really one victory I couldn’t even dream of. Despite what one could see from outside, it was quite a technical parcours, where I was lacking a bit of force into every turn compared to my rivals for the victory. Still, I felt really strong over the course, and beating a rider like Cancellara, almost unbeatable in such courses… it was fantastic. Once we were noticed about the route change, I prepared this TT as much as I could and studied the route thoroughly – clearly, the efforts from previous days and my training have paid off.
“Wearing the ‘maglia azzurra’ in such a beautiful, important race makes me really happy; it’s undoubtedly one of the wins I will appreciate the most at the end of my career. It would be nice to keep it for as long as possible, but we into the team have a strong contender for the GC in Nairo, so we will work for the next two days to keep but always staying focused on protecting him and helping him out where possible. There are two TTs in this race and I already won in San Benedetto in 2014, but now it’s time to enjoy this win and think about the upcoming days before that one.”
