Adriano Malori (Lampre) took the win in the race against the clock at the 34th Tour of Bavaria and looks set to clinch the overall victory. The 25-year-old Italian won in the time trial on Saturday’s stage 4 and took the yellow jersey from Gerald Ciolek (MTN Qhubeka).

Malori completed the 31.2 km long course in the time of 38:18 minutes and finished 18 seconds ahead of the German U-23 time trial champion Jasha Suetterlin (Thüringer Energie Team), who thus landed the runner up spot after a sensational performance. A further second behind came the Czech time trial champion Jan Barta (NetApp Endura) in third place.

Geraint Thomas (Sky), the overall winner of 2011 came in at the same time as Barta to take fourth place, followed by the French Jeérémy Roy (FDJ / +0:26). A convincing performance was also delivered by Simon Geschke (Argos-Shimano), who finished in sixth place as the second best German rider with a 29 seconds time deficit on the day.

Going into Sunday’s 5th and final stage, Malori, who finished 2nd overall at the 2010 Bayern Rundfahrt, leads Thomas, who celebrated his 27th birthday today, by 23 seconds. Barta moved up to third overall at 26”. Ciolek, who led the race prior to Saturday’s time trial, dropped to tenth overall but may find consolation in another sprint victory as the race finishes on Sunday.

Result, stage 4:
1 Adriano Malori - Lampre-Merida 38.19
2 Jasha Sütterlin - Thüringer Energie Team 0.18”
3 Jan Barta - Team NetApp-Endura 0.19”
4 Geraint Thomas - Sky
5 Jeremy Roy - FDJ 0.26”
6 Simon Geschke - Argos-Shimano 0.29”
7 Diego Ulissi 0.36”
8 Ian Stannard - Sky 0.37”
9 Marcel Wyss - IAM Cycling 0.42”
10 Ignatas Konovalovas - MTN Qhubeka 0.49”
 

General classification:
1 Adriano Malori - Lampre-Merida 15.04.02
2 Geraint Thomas - Sky 0.23”
3 Jan Barta - Team NetApp-Endura 0.26”
4 Jeremy Roy - FDJ 0.33”
5 Simon Geschke - Argos-Shimano
6 Diego Ulissi - Lampre-Merida 0.43”
7 Marcel Wyss - IAM Cycling 0.47”
8 Ian Stannard - Sky 0.59”
9 Martin Elmiger - IAM Cycling 1’02”
10 Gerald Ciolek - MTN Qhubeka 1’13”