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Vincenzo Nibali wins the Giro d'Italia for second time

Final stage in Turin goes to Niklas Arndt as Giacomo Nizzolo disqualified

Vincenzo Nibali of Astana has won the 99th Giro d’Italia, the fourth Grand Tour victory of his career. The first rider across the line in today’s final stage from Cuneo to Turin was Giacomo Nizzolo of Trek Segafredo, ten times a second-place finisher at the Giro and this afternoon seeming to have won a stage for the first ever time. However, he was judged to have impeded Lampre-Merida's Sacha Modolo in the sprint, and the stage win instead went to runner-up Niklas Arndt of Giant-Alpecin.

The Sicilian’s second overall victory in his home race seemed highly unlikely on Thursday evening when he lay 4 minutes 40 seconds behind race leader LottoNL-Jumbo’s Steven Kruijswijk, and there was even talk of him abandoning the race due to health issues.

But after undergoing medical tests and, reportedly, acupuncture, he took a stunning stage win in Risoul on Friday, the day when Orica-GreenEdge’s Esteban Chaves took the overall lead, then moved into the maglia rosa yesterday with another dominant performance.

For most of the 163km stage which concluded with eight laps of a 7.5km circuit in Turin, two LottoNL-Jumbo riders were out in front on their own – Jos van Emden, and Martin Tjallingi, the latter riding the final Grand Tour of his career prior to retiring next month.

A specialist time triallist, van Emden was finally brought back with just under 7km remaining, Bardiani-CSF’s Sonny Cobrelli immediately launching an attack but crashing within metres when he hit a spectator who was crouching to take a photo.

A scrappy finale saw a number of riders attack inside the final kilometre, but Nizzolo timed his charge for the line perfectly to appear to have finally broken his duck in his home Grand Tour, but as the top three overall finishers took to the podium, it was confirmed that he had been declassified for irregular sprinting.

Earlier, with 30 kilometres remaining, another big crash in the peloton saw riders including Chaves and Rigoberto Uran of Cannondale hit the deck.

Due to the wet roads, the race jury had decided moments before to take the final general classification time on the next passage of the finish line, meaning that there would be no changes overall as long as the riders completed the stage.

One rider who was unable to finish as a result of that crash was Movistar’s Jasha Sütterlin, taken away in an ambulance for treatment, as was Dimension Data’s Johann van Zyl.

Joining Nibali on the final podium were Chaves and Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde, second and third overall respectively, while Nizzolo took the points classification for the second year running - and once again, thanks to the reversal of today's result, without winning a stage.

Sky’s Mikel Nieve won the mountains jersey, while Trek-Segafredo’s Bob Jungels was confirmed as best young rider.

After collecting his second Trofeo Senza Fine - the 'Endless Trophy,' so called because of its spiral shape - Nibali revealed that his struggles at the start of the final week were due to illness.

"I had a stomach bug during the Giro but it’s better not to tell everything sometimes," he explained.

"The last rest day allowed me to get better. I never said that I wanted to go home. I always remained in the high part of the classification.

"Steven Kruijswijk had a good advantage after the Dolomites but I knew the highest mountains were yet to come. Riding above 2000 metres isn’t easy for anyone but I found myself in good shape.

"Kruijswijk crashed but towards the summit of the Colle d’Agnello [on Friday], I noticed he was breathing heavily so I put pressure on him climbing and then descending.

"Had I not done so, probably nothing would have happened and Chaves would have had an easy ride as well. Everyone was watching me and I wasn’t used to race guys like [Tom] Dumoulin, Chaves and Kruijswijk.

"I don’t often look at my palmarès but when I do, I realise it’s rich of great successes," he added.

Nizzolo looked anything but happy as he stepped onto the podium to collect the red points jersey, and his team said he had been on the edge of tears when he was told he had been stripped of the win.

"Great job from the team, and great sprint from myself," he said. "The jury decided not to give me the victory, but I will go home tonight knowing that I was the fastest today."

Stage 21 sprint of 2016 Giro d'Italia in Turin (PHOTO CREDIT ANSA - PERI - DI MEO - ZENNARO).jpg

Arndt, awarded the stage win after finishing second, claimed Germany's seventh stage win at the race, one more than Italian riders collectively managed.

He said: "I saw the sprint from my side of the road, which was the other side from Nizzolo and Modolo. It was nervous in the last kilometre. It was hectic through the corners but I just focused on myself. I crossed the line in second position.

"Afterwards it turned out that I won the stage. It was a surprise for me. The jury took its decision, it was a difficult one to take for sure.

"This is the biggest result of my career so far. I came here to go for the sprints and to win a stage. I had two good results before today but the win was missing.

"I can imagine Nizzolo is very disappointed but I hope he can enjoy the maglia rossa. He has had a good Giro,” he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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20 comments

Avatar
Windydog | 7 years ago
0 likes

Fair play Vincenzo, great comeback win.  Some amazing moments, and Kruijswijk's crash in the snow was a memorable, but painful looking, gymnastic turning point.   Future is bright, bring on the TDF!

Avatar
HarrogateSpa | 7 years ago
3 likes

If you were cynical, you'd wonder if bringing the doctors in 'to see if he is ill' is an excuse to explain the presence of the doctors, and to justify any needle marks. Of course it could be legit.

If you're already suspicious, Nibali's comments and explanations don't help. I just felt so much better once we got above 2000m. It doesn't usually work that way.

Avatar
zippypablo replied to HarrogateSpa | 7 years ago
2 likes

HarrogateSpa wrote:

If you were cynical, you'd wonder if bringing the doctors in 'to see if he is ill' is an excuse to explain the presence of the doctors, and to justify any needle marks. Of course it could be legit.

If you're already suspicious, Nibali's comments and explanations don't help. I just felt so much better once we got above 2000m. It doesn't usually work that way.

Cycling has a no needles policy, so he couldn't justify any (if he had some).

Elite athletes are highly tuned and more susceptible to minor illness. Chaves looked worn out & seemd to be getting ill. Nibali benefitted from this and a crash so although there's a degree of scepticism/cynicism regarding such results, it wasn't that outrageous. 

Certainly not on a par with Landis riding away from the whole peloton 10 years ago.

Avatar
ColT | 7 years ago
0 likes

Nikias, not Niklas, surely?

Avatar
CycloTron07 | 7 years ago
0 likes

To be fair, even though it looks suspicious, if one were to attempt to cheat, doing it in this way isn't exactly flying under the radar...  You would think a person who's doping would try to be less obvious about it in this day and age.

Avatar
Jay88 | 7 years ago
1 like

That bit about him explaining himself that he had a stomach bug and doesn't want to tell everything just sounds suspicious. If he won fair and square why does he need to explain himself?  And a stomach bug? Why would he be eating stuff outside of the team's diet knowing how import the Giro was for him. A crock of shit IMO. 

Avatar
Stumps | 7 years ago
6 likes

I cant see any need for language like that mate.

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vonhelmet | 7 years ago
1 like

He won, so he must be doping. The usual analysis.

Avatar
Kadinkski replied to vonhelmet | 7 years ago
4 likes

vonhelmet wrote:

He won, so he must be doping. The usual analysis.

 

He hasn't failed a drugs test. The usual rebuttal.

Avatar
bobbinogs | 7 years ago
7 likes

The last time I saw a midtour turnaround in performance like that was Floyd Landis in Stage 17, TdF 2006.

Avatar
Kapelmuur replied to bobbinogs | 7 years ago
0 likes

Bobbinogs wrote:

The last time I saw a midtour turnaround in performance like that was Floyd Landis in Stage 17, TdF 2006.

 

Which Landis won by 7 minutes.

Avatar
Simon E replied to bobbinogs | 7 years ago
1 like

Bobbinogs wrote:

The last time I saw a midtour turnaround in performance like that was Floyd Landis in Stage 17, TdF 2006.

Ha ha, that's so preposterous it's almost funny.

vonhelmet wrote:

He won, so he must be doping. The usual analysis.

More likely: "I don't like him, and anyway his team management were all dopers" (which at least contains a tiny bit of logic).

To anyone saying Nibali is an idiot for riding for Astana, is your employer the most ethical business you've come across? No, so give it a rest.

Avatar
Butty | 7 years ago
4 likes

Looks like acupuncture works miracles.

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barbarus | 7 years ago
4 likes

The pressure on thee guys and Nibali in particular is immense and circumstantially it doesn't look great. When I saw the TV pics of him at the end of stage 19 I genuinely felt for the guy and I want to believe he's legit, but I'ma cynic. Maybe we are getting to a time when no sporting result can be certain until years later.
On the other hand, I don't think even Astana have dope that makes rivals crash at opportune moments.

Avatar
fennesz | 7 years ago
6 likes

I've booked myself in for a medical test before the Marmotte.

Avatar
drosco | 7 years ago
2 likes

Hmmmmm.

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brackley88 | 7 years ago
2 likes

Superb result for Nibali. Hats off to him. What a fantastic abilit to turn himself around and transform his performance so late in the race. Astana must have one hell of a support team and Vino must be doing a brilliant job to be able to turn this challenging Giro into a resounding success. Chapeau!! 

Avatar
Kadinkski | 7 years ago
6 likes

Fair play to him, but if he's clean he's an idiot to race for Astana. It's a big 'if' though, and personally I think the Armstrongesque performance after his 'medical test' is dodgy as fuck.

I watched every minute of the race (working from home). It was lovely to see Kittel at the top of his game again. Dumoulin early on made me happy too. 

But then after about stage 12 the race just felt bad. It turned sour. I don't understand what's happened but its like they're fucking immature, cheating footballers preening  around the field. Sportsmanship went out the window. 

Cycling at the moment needs more Americans, Brits & Irish, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis & Saffas.

Avatar
rliu replied to Kadinkski | 7 years ago
1 like
Kadinkski wrote:

Fair play to him, but if he's clean he's an idiot to race for Astana. It's a big 'if' though, and personally I think the Armstrongesque performance after his 'medical test' is dodgy as fuck.

I watched every minute of the race (working from home). It was lovely to see Kittel at the top of his game again. Dumoulin early on made me happy too. 

But then after about stage 12 the race just felt bad. It turned sour. I don't understand what's happened but its like they're fucking immature, cheating footballers preening  around the field. Sportsmanship went out the window. 

Cycling at the moment needs more Americans, Brits & Irish, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis & Saffas.

This is just partisan nonsense, how quickly you forget the French accusations against Froome, and then the very first archetype of a doper you gave is an American! To me Nibali won the race because he had a stronger team, whereas Chaves and Kruijswijk were consistently left on their own by the crucial last climbs.

Avatar
Kadinkski replied to rliu | 7 years ago
3 likes

rliu wrote:
Kadinkski wrote:

Fair play to him, but if he's clean he's an idiot to race for Astana. It's a big 'if' though, and personally I think the Armstrongesque performance after his 'medical test' is dodgy as fuck.

I watched every minute of the race (working from home). It was lovely to see Kittel at the top of his game again. Dumoulin early on made me happy too. 

But then after about stage 12 the race just felt bad. It turned sour. I don't understand what's happened but its like they're fucking immature, cheating footballers preening  around the field. Sportsmanship went out the window. 

Cycling at the moment needs more Americans, Brits & Irish, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis & Saffas.

This is just partisan nonsense, how quickly you forget the French accusations against Froome, and then the very first archetype of a doper you gave is an American! To me Nibali won the race because he had a stronger team, whereas Chaves and Kruijswijk were consistently left on their own by the crucial last climbs.

 

Its two different things really.

Nibali is a cheat, thats the first thing.

The second thing about the anglos is more about sportsmanship. Even Arnstrong waited for Ulrich when he crashed on a desent - they had respect in those days and they knew they were all part of a elite group of peers. The fucks racing in this race were utter shits, like 7 year olds shitting over each other. A peleton of Ronaldos. 

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