Adriano Malori (Lampre-Farnese Vini) on the podium(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Adriano Malori shows off his time trial position, save the bike, in an unusual image.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) is targeting the Italian time trial title in 2011. The former Under 23 world time trial champion impressed against the clock during his first season as a professional and he is now looking to turn strong performances into victories.
“It will be my main objective for the coming season,” Malori said of the Italian time trial championship to Cyclismactu.net. “All specialists aspire to being national time trial champion, but maybe [reigning champion] Marco Pinotti will be the strongest again…”
While Malori took third place in the 2010 Italian time trial championships, many of his best performances last season came over shorter distances, such as in the prologues of the Critérium du Dauphiné (7th) and the Tour de France (14th). However, he insists that he is not a prologue specialist.
“Psychologically, I have no problem with the distance,” Malori said. “I do suffer more when the race is long, especially when it’s a time trial of over 40km but I think that you acquire endurance in time trials with age. So given that I’m only 22, I can’t be at my maximum yet. I have no worries in that regard.”
World Under 23 time trial champion in 2008, Malori is well aware that his greatest chances of victory come against the clock, but he also harbours ambitions of progressing in short stage races.
“It’s possible that I could be competitive in the short stage races where there aren’t real mountains and you make the difference in the time trial, like the Tour of Bavaria or the Eneco Tour,” Malori said.
The young Italian has already tasted action at one of the Grand Tours and he battled bravely to finish the Tour de France as Lanterne Rouge in his debut season as a professional.
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“I didn’t want to abandon even though I had two big crashes during the second and third stages,” Malori explained. “I had no shortage of injuries but I stuck to it. The first ten days were really difficult but I fought on.
“The greatest memory of this season, the one that will stay engraved in my memory, is arriving in Paris on the Champs Elysées for the last stage of the Tour.”
Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.
