Tirreno-Adriatico 2014: Stage 7

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January 1 - March 18, San Benedetto del Tronto (ITT), Italy, Road - WorldTour

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Live coverage of the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, a 9.1km individual time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto.

Alberto Contador looks all but assured of final overall victory, with a healthy 2:08 lead over Nairo Quintana, but there's still plenty up for decision on today's short, sharp finale to Tirreno-Adriatico. A 9.1km time trial at the end of a week-long stage race usually plays out rather differently to a prologue time trial of equivalent length, and the time gaps can sometimes be a little bigger than anticipated.

Quintana won't overhaul Contador, but he'll (figuratively speaking) be looking over his shoulder anxiously at Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo), who is just seven seconds behind the Colombian in third. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r-La Mondiale) is a strong time triallist and showed his form with a fine showing at Guardiagrele on Sunday. 5th place and 25 seconds off Kreuziger, he isn't quite out of the hunt for the podium places, although he will need to produce something special this afternoon.

The overall picture after stage 6 is as follows:

Parallel to the overall question is the battle for stage honours, and there is no shortage of time trialling hitters in the field this afternoon. World time trial champion Tony Martin, Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins and the one-time holder of both of those titles Fabian Cancellara are all in action in San Benedetto del Tronto, albeit with differing frames of mind,

The full start order for the time trial is here, with Martin (14.22), Wiggins (14.47) and Cancellara (14.51) among the names to look at for among the earlier starters, while the last fifteen to set off down the start ramp are as follows:

Tony Martin has just completed his effort, and it's bad news for the world champion. He put in a solid time of 10:28, but that's some 15 seconds off the best time so far, a scorching 10:13 from Adriano Malori (Movistar).

The first stand-out time was set by Alex Dowsett (Movistar), who clocked a fine 10:33, but he was bettered shortly afterwards by Tom Dumouil (Giant-Shimano), albeit by just one second.

Fabian Cancellara (Trek) is in the start house about to start his time trial while Bradley Wiggins is already out on the course, four minutes into his effort.

Cancellara downplayed his chances before the start, insisting that his mind is focused on the impending classics rather than time trialling. "Time trials don’t interest me as much as they once did. I don’t get the same feeling of happiness and satisfaction that I once did. I'm not ashamed to say that because it’s the truth," he said.

Wiggins' focus this spring is on Paris-Roubaix, but the Englishman was hopeful that he might see the benefits of his classics training in San Benedetto del Tronto this afternoon. "I had a good team time trial and a lot of my training has been about making short, intense efforts for making efforts at Paris-Roubaix, so that's good for time trialling too," Wiggins told Cyclingnews.

Wiggins was 12 seconds down on Malori at the intermediate time check, and he'll be hard pressed to come close to the Italian at that rate.

Wiggins enters the final kilometre in 9:20 - he'll need to cover the final thousand metres at over 60kph to beat Malori.

Wiggins stops the clock in 10:24, the second best time to date. The Englishman will be pleased to have beaten Tony Martin, but he was still 11 seconds shy of the flying Malori.

Luke Durbridge, incidentally, clocked a time of 10:39. A solid outing, but still 26 seconds down on Malori.

Cancellara is eating up the ground as he catches his minute man Dan Martin underneath the red kite. Cancellara was just up on Wiggins at the 1km to go mark, but still looks set to finish short of Malori's time.

Second best time for Cancellara. His time of 10:19 (average speed 52.924kph) is 6 seconds down on Malori, but 5 clear of Wiggins and 9 up on Tony Martin.

Malori finished in second place on this very stage twelve months ago, when he was beaten by Tony Martin by 6 seconds. Given that Martin, Wiggins and Cancellara have all tried and failed to beat his time, Malori will fancy his chances of grabbing a stage victory this afternoon.

Cadel Evans (BMC) withdrew from Tirreno-Adriatico before this afternoon's time trial. The Australian has struggled in Italy this week, although he did not give any specific reason for his low-key showing and his abandon

Evans' teammate Philippe Gilbert, meanwhile, has just finished his time trial, clocking a discreet time of 11:11 for 64th place. It will be interesting to see how the Belgian performs at Milan-San Remo at the weekend. Prior to the removal of the Pompeiana, the race was one of Gilbert's key spring targets, but one wonders if in its absence his thoughts are already firmly on the Ardennes classics.

It's been a long wait in the hot seat for Adriano Malori, and the final starter Alberto Contador is still almost 40 minutes away. Speaking to Tuttobici, Malori reckoned that the stiffest challenge to his time from this yet to start will come from Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). "I've looked at the list: on paper, the only one to fear is Kwiatkowski," Malori said.

Rigoberto Uran crosses the line 33 seconds down on Malori, while Peter Sagan comes home with the 18th best time to date, 39 seconds off the pace.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) is in the opening kilometre of his effort and quickly settles into his aerodynamic position.

Kwiatkowski, lest we forget, beat Malori into second place over 13.6km in the stage 3 time trial at the Volta ao Algarve last month, and entered Tirreno-Adriatico in a rich vein of form after landing an astonishing win at Strade Bianche.

Adriano Malori's face creases into a smile - Michal Kwiatkowski is 14 seconds down at the midway point.

"I won't trust it until he's crossed the finish line," Malori tells RAI. "Winning today would be a dream. My objective for the year is to get closer to the big guns of world time trialling with an aim to winning a medal at the Worlds. It seems like I'm on the right path."

Kwiatkowski can't get close to Malori's time. The Pole crosses the line with the 7th best time to date, but his 10:35 is 22 seconds down on Malori.

It seems that only Cancellara and Wiggins managed to cover the second part of the course quicker than Malori, and they only pegged back a second each on the man from Parma.

Michal Kwiatkowski has declared himself satisfied with his showing this afternoon. "It was a really hard course for me, it didn’t really suit me but I gave it my all as it’s only my second TT of the year as I wanted to see how I felt," Kwiatkowski told RAI on crossing the line. "I wasn’t bad."

RAI television, incidentally, has a new équipier in its coverage this season. Former Cofdis rider Massimiliano Lelli is now on the motorbike pillion once graced by Paolo Savoldelli.

The top ten riders on general classification are now beginning to set off. Robert Kiserlovski (Trek), Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) are all out on the course. The last fifteen riders, remember, are setting off at two-minute intervals.

Adriano Malori is already being shepherded towards the podium area. Short of Alberto Contador channelling his Annecy time trial of 2009, it's hard to imagine any one in the final five starters bettering Malori's time.

Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r-La Mondiale) is in the start house. The Frenchman is a fine time triallist and in decent form, and he might be able to push for a podium place.

The top of the provisional standings has remained unchanged for much of the past hour, with the top five as follows:

Julian Arredondo (Trek) has started his effort, and there are only three riders left to start - Roman Kreuziger, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador.

Domenico Pozzovivo crosses the line with the 47th best time to date, som 49 seconds down on Malori. That should be enough to ensure a place in the top ten overall for Pozzovivo.

Peraud comes through the intermediate time check fully 26 seconds off the mark set by Adriano Malori.

Meanwhile Nairo Quintana sets off, determined to defend his podium place. The time trial is only 9.1km in length but a useful physical and above all mental work-out ahead of his tilt at the Giro d'Italia.

A relaxed Alberto Contador rolls down the start ramp. The Spaniard has no need to take any risks early on, but it will be interesting to see how he fares against the watch. The Spaniard has credited former Sky directeur sportif Steve de Jongh for his part in his fine start to the 2014 season.

Roman Kreuziger was 24 seconds down on Malori at the intermediate time check. That's two seconds inside the time of Peraud.

Peraud crosses the line in a time of 10:53, 40 seconds down on the flying Malori.

Nairo Quintana, meanwhile, is riding a fine time trial and robustly defending his second place from Kreuziger. He is one second quicker than the Czech at the intermediate check.

Contador is a long way off Malori at the time check - the Spaniard is 29 seconds off the Movistar man's pace after 5 kilometres.

Kreuziger crosses the line in 10:53, which will be enough to finish on the podium but perhaps not quite quick enough to move up to second overall. He awaits the arrival of Nairo Quintana, who is now entering the final kilometre.

Quintana must record a time of 11 minutes or less to save second place overall...

Quintana finishes in 10:51 to ensure he will take second place on the overall standings. The Colombian put in a solid time trial and even gained a pair of second on Kreuziger over the 9.1km.

Adriano Malori (Movistar) has won the stage, as Contador is going to clock a time some way short of his winning 10:13.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) has won Tirreno-Adriatico, but he has plenty of room for improvement against the watch. His time of 10:54 was only good enough for 29th place. He finished three seconds down on Quintana and a second down on Kreuziger on the day.

Result:

Final general classification:

Result:

Final general classification:

Thanks for joining us for today's live coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico. A full report, results and pictures will follow here and we'll be back with more live coverage from Milan-San Remo on Sunday.

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