Adriano Malori (Movistar) confirmed his status as the best Italian time triallist when he took a hugely dominant victory in the battle for the tricolor jersey. With a time of 44.13 on the 36.2km course in Novara, he beat Moreno Moser (Cannondale) and Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo) by 1.01 and 1.13 respectively to make it two in a row in the battle for the national honour.

With stage victories in big races like Tirreno-Adriatico and the Vuelta a Espana, Adriano Malori has firmly positioned himself at the top of the Italian time trial hierarchy, taking over from Marco Pinotti who was the national TT champion no less than 6 times. Malori first took the top position in the country in 2011 when he won his first national title and last year he reclaimed his crown.

Today he was the big favourite in the 2015 edition of the battle for the tricolor jersey and he turned out to be in a class of his own on the 36.2km circuit in Novara. Being the last rider to start, he gained time from start to finish to take a comfortable second consecutive victory in the event.

Riccardo Stacchiotti (Nippo) had been the first rider to start the race and he had set an early mark of 47.26. However, it was Daniele Bennati who was the third rider down the ramp and spent most of the time in the hot seat after having taken the lead with a time of 45.26.

Manuele Senni (BMC) slotted into second before several riders failed to challenge the Tinkoff-Saxo sprinter. It was Moreno Moser who finally knocked him out of the hot seat by going 12 seconds faster with just 4 riders still to finish.

Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) had a poor ride to make it into fourth and as last year’s runner-up Alan Marangoni (Cannondale) could only manage third, only Malori was left to challenge Moser. However, he stopped the clock in 44.13 to firmly confirm his position at the top of the hierarchy.

The road race Italian championships will be held on Saturday on a very tough course that finished at the top of the steep Colle Superga climb just outside Turin.