photo credits @ Twitter
Adrianao Malori won yesterday’s individual time trial, after setting the fastest time of 7:58 along the 6.8 kilometer course in Angers.
Meanwhile, his teammate Alex Dowsett finished 9 seconds slower, followed by Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin) in third with a time of 8:13.
Yesterday’s victory, marked Malori’s third win of the season, after also winning time trials at the Tour de San Luis and the more recent Tirreno-Adriatico.
“I’m not so surprised to win as I’ve felt good sensations in the last month,” the Italian champion for time trial explained after receiving the yellow jersey on stage. “I came here to win the time trial today. Now I also lead the race. It looks like a very hard stage on the map tomorrow and I have strong competitors with [Tiago] Machado, [Ramunas] Navardauskas and [Stephen] Cummings. They are so close to me.”
As a result of his ITT victory, Malori is now in first place in the overall classification, while Dowsett moved up into second.
FDJ’s Anthony Roux limited his losses, despite struggle with bronchitis, and is now in third place at 12 seconds behind.
“I didn’t feel super as I felt the efforts of the morning stage in my legs”, defending champion Navardauskas said. “I tried my best on this quite technical course with small bumps that required to stay focused all the time. I’m third like last year with Movistar ahead of me. They’re a strong team with strong boys for time trialling but there are still two days to go. They’ll need to ride and I wish them the best of luck to defend the jersey with a team of six riders only.”
Top 20 Finishers
1 Adriano Malori (Ita) Movistar Team 0:07:58 2 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Movistar Team 0:00:09 3 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:15 4 Tiago Machado (Por) Team Katusha 0:00:16 5 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:20 6 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 7 Stephen Cummings (GBr) MTN – Qhubeka 0:00:21 8 Nathan Haas (Aus) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:22 9 Michael Valgren Andersen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo 10 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:25 11 Aleksei Tsatevich (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:28 12 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Team Katusha 13 Patrick Gretsch (Ger) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:29 14 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:00:30 15 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ.fr 16 Johann Van Zyl (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka 0:00:31 17 Jan Bakelants (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale 18 Ben King (USA) Cannondale-Garmin 0:00:32 19 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement 20 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Tinkoff-Saxo
General classification after stage 2b
1 Adriano Malori (Ita) Movistar Team 6:45:27 2 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Movistar Team 0:00:09 3 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:00:12 4 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:15 5 Nathan Haas (Aus) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:16 6 Tiago Machado (Por) Team Katusha 7 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:20 8 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 9 Stephen Cummings (GBr) MTN – Qhubeka 0:00:21 10 Michael Valgren Andersen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:22 11 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:25 12 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:28 13 Aleksei Tsatevich (Rus) Team Katusha 14 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Team Katusha 15 Patrick Gretsch (Ger) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:09 16 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ.fr 0:00:30 17 Johann Van Zyl (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka 0:00:31 18 Jan Bakelants (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale 19 Ben King (USA) Cannondale-Garmin 0:00:32 20 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement
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