Klöden takes Trentino time trial opener

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Andreas Klöden (RadioShack) continued his rich vein of spring form with victory in the opening time trial of the Giro del Trentino. The German edged out Italian youngster Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) by one second over the 13.4km course on the shores of Lake Garda, with his teammate Tiago Machado coming home in third place.

Klöden’s win in Arco was the 35-year-old’s fourth victory of a season that has already seen him take overall honours at the Tour of the Basque Country.

“Perhaps only in 2000 [when he won Paris-Nice] have I gone as well as I’ve done this year,” Klöden admitted afterwards. “It’s thanks to a calm winter, good health and the right training.”

Although he claimed to be fatigued on the eve of the race, Klöden will now be looking to defend his lead as the race heads into the Dolomites. “I don’t know the climbs, I’ve only seen them in the race manual," he said. "The stage profiles say they’ll be hard. At a glance, Thursday’s stage could prove decisive.”

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) enjoyed a solid afternoon in his first competitive appearance since Milan-San Remo. The Sicilian has been training on Mount Etna in the interim, and the fruit of his work there was apparent as he rode to fourth place in Tuesday’s time trial, 9 seconds down on Klöden.

“Considering that I haven’t raced since Milan-San Remo and that I’ve come from a spell of training on climbs at altitude, and was thus lacking in rhythm, I have to say that it was a good time trial. Excellent, in fact,” Nibali said.

With one eye on next month’s Giro d’Italia, Nibali will have further reason to be content with his performance, as his main home rival Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) struggled to find his rhythm. Scarponi has also trained at altitude in Sicily in recent weeks, but he could only manage 12th on the stage, 26 seconds down on Klöden.

Another Giro d’Italia contender, Roman Kreuziger (Astana), was also unable to match Nibali against the watch. The Czech was riding close to his own training roads, as his Italian base lies on the opposite shore of Lake Garda, near Verona, but he had to be content with 14th place on the day, 27 seconds down.

Scarponi and Kreuziger were separated by a man with aspirations of overall victory in Trentino, Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago CSF-Inox), and the Italian climber will be pleased not to have yielded too much time ahead of his favoured terrain.

Alessandro Ballan (BMC) was another notable performer in the time trial, as he finished in 8th place.

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