Cancellara gets revenge in final Tirreno TT, Quintana confirms GC
After losing to Malori in the first TT at Tirreno, Cancellara turns the tables and wins stage 7. Quintana confirms overall title in Italy
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Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) won the short time trial that closed out Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday, as Nairo Quintana (Movistar) confirmed his overall victory in the seven-day race.
“I feel a lot of racing kilometers,” said Cancellara, who had been disappointed to lose stage 1 to Adriano Malori (Movistar) last week. “On the end, of course, I had to push like everyone has to do. … I just gave all in, and I’m really happy and satisfied. I’m looking out for the large and bigger picture, the next two weekends, for the big races.”
Malori was second, and Vasil Kiryienka (Sky) finished third in San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy.
Cancellara set a best time early on, riding the 10km test in 11:23, knocking Tinkoff-Saxo’s Maciej Bodnar out of the hot seat. Kiryienka rode five riders later but came nine seconds shy of beating the Swiss. Malori was a little later in the order, taking five seconds out of Kiryienka but slotting in four seconds behind Cancellara.
“In the prologue I made some mistakes, and I was determined not to repeat that today,” Cancellara said in a team statement. “The biggest mistake was to come out of the aero position too early [in the prologue], and I kept that in mind today. I gave all-in today and I am really happy and satisfied to have another victory in the pocket.
“I had the feeling that I was going fast to the first split time, because it was slightly down, and the way back is false flat up and with the speed bumps. … I knew it was harder coming back. On [the] way out it was easier to push the big gears, and on the way back you had to push more. I got pushed from the car that I had to go over 60km/h [at the end] to get what I should.”
Contador stopped the clock 31 seconds behind Cancellara. His performance was the best of the top five GC riders.
Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) was next across the line, fending off Contador to keep his fourth-place standing overall, 33 seconds off the winning time.
Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quick-Step) was five seconds behind Pinot at the line, riding well, but not quick enough to overtake Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing), who sat second overall at the start of the day. The Dutch rider took four seconds out of Uran in the 10km test.
Quintana finished 55 seconds behind Cancellara, but that was all he needed to secure his overall win at Tirreno-Adriatico. Mollema ended the week of racing 18 seconds behind the Colombian, while Uran was third overall, 31 seconds back.
“I couldn’t take things easy because it was a pretty demanding time trial, a bit longer to last year’s and harder,” Quintana said in a team press release. “The rivals had a bigger advantage over me in that terrain and I had to go on full steam; fortunately, things went ‘normal,’ as good as I needed to keep the jersey, and I’m really happy.”