The Movistar Team featured again on the podium of the 2015 UCI World Championships, yet with a sourer taste than after its bronze medal in last Sunday's team time trial. Adriano Malori took silver in an extremely long (53.5km), demanding Worlds ITT, as Jonathan Castroviejo (4th) offered yet another proof of the individual talent behind superb collective quality from Eusebio Unzué's squad.

Malori fought until the very final slope next to the finish to make up his initial margin, 27” after 16km in, to Vasil Kiryienka (BLR), a gap the Traversetolo-based rider reduced to 24” through the second intermediate (26.5km) and only 11” at the third (42.6km). Eventually, only nine seconds prevented the U23 rainbow jersey of  2008 repeating such a feat within the pros, a truly regular progression from his 10th place in 2012 (Valkenburg) to today's silver following Firenze's 8th (2013) and Ponferrada's 6th twelve months ago.

"I really got on my top speed well from very early into the race, and was able to increase it bit by bit through the route until the end," he said. "I gave really everything I got, but it wasn't enough to beat Kiryienka. Probably the final slope was more suited to the Belarusian than me, since he was even trailing on the GPS reference in the flat section before. Still, it is of no use to complain after this - I remain really happy with this second place, which gives me a lot of confidence for big races coming in the next years. It's even more important to end a drought like this for italy, 21 years without a rider on the ITT Worlds podium.

"It's a perfect balance for me because my objective was to do better than last year, and I was sixth last year in Ponferrada. So to go from sixth place to second place I think is really a good result for me because it was a very long time trial, more than one hour on the bike.

"I think that because of the wind today we all raced very fast. But I think that wasn't the point because the conditions were the same for everybody. So maybe the wind had an effect on the average speeds, but not on the results.

"In the flat I just gave it my all because I knew the times from my team manager because I had a radio. I knew that the only possibility for me was to really give it my all if I wanted to win. But Vasil was the strongest guy today.

"I think that next year the course as far as I know will also be a very good one for me, and I hope that maybe next year Vasil will let me have first place."