He “won” the Lanterne Rouge for last place in the Tour de France last year, but tomorrow morning Lampre-ISD’s Adriano Malori will pin on the red number, having been voted of the most combative rider on today’s stage. The 23-year-old Italian time trial champion was part of a five-man group that escaped just five kilometres into the 226km stage between Dinan and Lisieux. He was the only rider to be able to follow the acceleration of Vacansoleil-DCM’s Lieuwe Westra with 60km to go, and then attacked himself inside the final 20km.
Malori was only caught with less than three kilometres to go, as he reached the bottom of the climb to the finish.
"In the morning meeting with our sports director I was told that I should pay attention to the attacks in the early part of the stage,” he said afterwards. “As soon as I realized that a good action was beginning, I reacted and I found myself in the breakaway.”
Once the group of five riders had formed, including Westra and his Vacansoleil-DCM teammate Johnny Hoogerland, FDJ’s Anthony Roux and Cofidis’ Leonardo Duque, it was allowed to build an advantage of 11’35”. It was down to 30 seconds though, when Malori finally went off alone at the end, giving him very little chance to stay away.
“We made a lot of efforts to obtain a good advantage,” he explained, “but, when I was alone, I knew that it would have been very difficult to reach the finish.
“Anyway, I think that it has been a great day for me,” he added, “full of emotions such the ceremony of the award as most combative rider"
Malori finished the stage in 110th place, 1’44” back, having been caught and passed by the charging peloton. He currently sits 95th in the overall classification, so far, a long way off a repeat of that Lanterne Rouge.