Sixth consecutive Grand Tour victory for Contador
David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo) won the final stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, a flat individual time trial through the streets of Milan. The Briton took the lead early in the day, with his only real threat for the stage coming in the form of Maglia Rosa Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard). The Spaniard flew through the intermediate time check 1 second faster than Millar, enough to put the man in the hot seat on edge.
But Contador was content with his overall success, and eased up to celebrate his sixth consecutive Grand Tour victory as he approached the line, leaving the stage spoils to the Gamrin-Cervelo rider. Alex Rasmussen (HTC-Highroad) was second on the day, with Contador rounding out the stage podium in third. His teammate Richie Porte also put in a strong ride to finish the stage in fourth.
Roman Krueziger (Astana) secured the best young rider’s jersey with former Giro d’Italia winner Stefano Garzelli taking the green jersey of best climber. In the end, Contador was 6 minutes and 10 seconds over Michelle Scarponi in the battle for the pink jersey, with Vincenzo Nibali finishing third overall for the second straight year. Contador’s consistency throughout the race also saw the Spaniard win the red points jersey competition.
Mountains finally over, time for the race of truth
The final stage of the Giro d’Italia was contested on the streets of Milan, with Maglia Rosa Alberto Contador only having 26 kilometers to ride to secure his second overall title in Italy’s Grand Tour. Second placed Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) would begin the test with a 56 second advantage over his compatriot Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale).
Garmin-Cervelo’s David Millar was the first of the day’s favorites to hit the course, finishing 7 seconds ahead of HTC-Highroad’s Alex Rasmussen to claim the hot seat. The Briton had been marking the stage out for a chance at victory, and rode through the Alps and Dolmites with a highly unusual gearing of 42×36 to try to keep his legs fresh for the stage.
Richie Porte (Saxo Bank-Sungard) was the next big gun to fire, but the amount kilometers clocked on the front of the race in the service of Contador had taken too much out of his reserves to post a winning time. Meanwhile, Frenchman Mikael Cherel (AG2r La Mondiale) decided to ride his time trial on the wheel of Ero Capecchi (Liquigas-Cannondale), until a moto official rode along side the pair and forced him to pull to the side.
Battle for second begins
As the top ten in the general classification filed off the start ramp, the biggest battle to come was between second and third on the podium. With 5.5 kilometers shaved off the original route, Scarponi looked to have done enough in the mountains to secure his spot. Behind, Contador powered to the intermediate time check 1 second to the good of Millar, the first to threaten his time.
In front of the Maglia Rosa Nibali didn’t look as smooth as Scarponi as he fought to take time back on his compatriot, while climber Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) pulled out a solid performance to hold onto his fifth place overall. Behind the overall leader continued to work his way towards the finish as Scarponi succeeded in his effort to defend second place overall. Last man on the road, Contador came through the final kilometer in celebratory mode, waving to the tifosi and sealing the deal for Millar to be the victor of the stage.