Tirreno-Adriatico 2014, Stage7 March 18 **contains unmasked spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 7: Monday 18th, San Benedetto del Tronto (ITT) 9.1km

The GC may be wrapped up, but some of the world's best TT-ers will be battling it out to win the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. This is short TT, with only few corners, so it should all come down to raw power! And so the favourites have to be Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara. You would normally expect Bradley Wiggins to be right up there as well, but it's hard to know given his form. The Italian Movistar rider Adriano Malori is one to really look out for. He was second behind Tony Martin last year in the T-A ITT (same parcours as today), and he beat Tony Martin in the Volta ao Algarve ITT a few weeks ago. A couple of other riders to look out for are Alex Dowsett and Luke Durbridge. Alberto Contador will want to perform well, so expect a decent performance from him. But he shouldn't get close to the likes of Martin and Spartacus.

Full list of start order and times here (CET).

Start times of selected riders (GMT):
Alex Dowsett (Movistar) 12:05
Adriano Malori (Movistar) 13:15
Tony Martin (OPQS) 13:24
Cadel Evans (BMC) 13:33
Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) 13:36
Bradley Wiggins (Sky) 13:47
Fabian Cancellara (Trek) 13:51
Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) 14:03
Peter Sagan (Cannondale) 14:14
Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS) 14:25
.....
Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) 14:53
Nairo Quintana (Movistar) 14:55
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) 14:57

Live coverage on Eurosport1 from 1.30pm. Highlights on Sky Sports 4 at 10pm, Eurosport2 at 10.30pm.

ZiabR

Normally I would go with Tony Martin but he has not been on good form so far this year. I think this may go to Fabian Cancellara.

pelevin

Some nasty ramps there.

Inquitus

logik wrote: »

Normally I would go with Tony Martin but he has not been on good form so far this year. I think this may go to Fabian Cancellara.

10/1 Cancellara on bet365, best you can get on Martin is 8/15

ZiabR

Inquitus wrote: »

10/1 Cancellara on bet365, best you can get on Martin is 8/15

Hmm, may be worth a punt alright!

MPFG

Bradley Wiggins will do it I think with Martin, Malori Cancelerra & Dowsett in top 5

Also expect Jean Christophe Peraud to go very well as in shout of the podium and a very good TTer...Roman Kreuziger will also go well

So JC Peraud, Kreuziger & Contador in top 10

Inquitus

MPFG wrote: »

Bradley Wiggins will do it I think with Martin, Malori Cancelerra & Dowsett in top 5

Also expect Jean Christophe Peraud to go very well as in shout of the podium and a very good TTer...Roman Kreuziger will also go well

So JC Peraud, Kreuziger & Contador in top 10

You can get 15/1 on Wiggins if you fancy it.

MPFG

Inquitus wrote: »

You can get 15/1 on Wiggins if you fancy it.

Thanks

death1234567

Martin a huge favourite for this with the bookie's.

dastardly00

It's hard to know how Wiggo will do. He hasn't raced much this year yet, and has only done one ITT so far. That was a 7.3km prologue in the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol, and he only managed 6th (behind Valverde, Dumoulin, Ion Izagirre, and team mates Kiryienka and Geraint Thomas).
Although with Porte dropping out before the start of Stage 5, Wiggins has had it easy the last two days, so he should have plenty of energy. I can't see him having the power to compete with Martin and Cancellara though.

letape

I expect Wiggo to get in the top two today. Bertie could get top 5.

Can't see Cancellera winning this. Regardless of his form, he has said that he doesn't have the same level of interest or motivation for TTs anymore.

Inquitus

Malori
Cancellara
Wiggins
Martin

soo far

ZiabR

Was watching it at lunch there. I was close with Cancellara. He has shown good form recently while Wiggins and Martin are not firing on all cylinders yet. Surprised by Malori, immense ride!

TheBlaaMan

Guys, it's a 9km TT - don't be drawing too many conclusions for the year based on such a short, flat, mostly un-technical, course.

MPFG

Only one who can beat Adriano Malori I think is Contador

ZiabR

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Guys, it's a 9km TT - don't be drawing too many conclusions for the year based on such a short, flat, mostly un-technical, course.

That is a good point alright, the likes of Martin/Wiggins/Cancellara prefer longer Time Trials.

death1234567

dastardly00 wrote: »

The Italian Movistar rider Adriano Malori is one to really look out for.

He was 15/2 joint 2nd favourite this morning.

MPFG

Quintana & Pozzovivo looking good for the Giro

ZiabR

Yeah Quintana has to be one of the favourites this year.

Darkglasses

Comprehensive win by Bertie, more than 2 minutes ahead of Quintana in the GC. Personally I hope it's not the last time we see him on the podium this year.

lennymc

death1234567 wrote: »

He was 15/2 joint 2nd favourite this morning.

put a few quid on him earlier*. Yay.

*and wiggins, and cancellara and just about everyone bar TM. The only way I could loose would be if TM won.

dastardly00

^^^^^
That is one class trophy

Just in terms of the Irish lads in the ITT ...
Nico finished 73rd (@56 sec), Sam was 116th (@1 min 13 sec), and Dan was 118th (@1 min 14 sec) out of 156 riders.

Overall: Nico - 40th; Dan - 55th; and Sam - 137th.

MPFG

We can only hope the Irish lads will have better form for the Giro

I hope I am wrong but Dan's form doesn't point to a successful defense of Catalyuna next week ....not his TT per se but his climbing

Nico was on chasing and wind duty so not too bad...he finished 15seconds behind Contador on TT so not a disaster however in comparison to Quintana and Pozzivivo who are little guys he needs to increase his power output

happytramp

MPFG wrote: »

We can only hope the Irish lads will have better form for the Giro

I hope I am wrong but Dan's form doesn't point to a successful defense of Catalyuna next week ....not his TT per se but his climbing

I'd agree. But I don't think he's too worried as he originally planned to skip it. He's been very vocal about just building form for the Giro although I assume he'll give the Ardennes a go too.

MPFG

I really don't understand about the 'in form' thing

How come riders like Valverde, J-Rod, Sagan, are in from most of the year and others seem ot takes ages to get there- Some can keep it and for others its gone after a short while ....is it an euphemism for I didn't buckle down early enough..or now afte rmy last result I want ot break out and stop this monks existence