Adriano Malori (Movistar) took the first leader’s jersey of the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico by winning the stage one time trial, edging out Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) by a single second.
Malori took his place on the leader’s chair with twenty seven riders still to go, including time trial specialists and GC contenders. His time of 6-04 on the short 5.4km course was enough to see him hold the lead until the end and claim the stage and overall lead.
The Italian averaged 53.4km/h across the parcours, which was enough to see off Cancellara and Greg van Avermaet, who completed the podium a further second down.
With such a short course, the results are unlikely to have a huge impact on the final general classification, but Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) lost 19 seconds to the day’s winner, to finish in 61st place. He is, however, just eight seconds behind Vincenzo Nibali and two seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana.
Chris Froome was forced to withdraw from the race with illness earlier this week, so the grand GC battle between Contador, Nibali, Quintana and the Kenyan-born Brit will have to wait until later in the season.
Steve Cummings (BMC) was the best placed British rider in 8th, six seconds behind Malori. Mark Cavendish came in 32nd, just 12 seconds down on the winning time and ahead of many TT specialists. Due to the short course, which was altered twice after bad weather in the area, the whole top 10 only spanned a time gap of eight seconds.
The race continues tomorrow with a relatively flat 153km stage from Camaiore to Cascina, that’s expected to end in a bunch sprint.
Tirreno-Adriatico stage one ITT, Lido di Camaiore to Lido di Camaiore, 5.4km (and overall)
1. Adriano Malori (Ita) Movistar, 6-40
2. Fabian Cancellara (Sui) Trek Factory Racing, at 1 second
3. Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC, at 2 seconds
4. Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, same time
5. Matthias Brandle (Aut) IAM Cycling, st
6. Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC, at 4 seconds
7. Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannondale-Garmin, at 5 seconds
8. Steve Cummings (GBr) BMC, at 6 seconds
9. Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo, st
10. Johan le Bon (Fra) FDJ, at 8 seconds
Fabian Cancellara on his way to second place. Photo: Graham Watson
Alberto Contador in action during the Stage 1 Individual Time Trial of the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico. Photo: Graham Watson
