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Giro d'Italia Stage 21: Cavendish wins stage & points jersey as Nibali seals overall win

Cav writes another page in history as he becomes only the fifth rider to win points competition in all three Grand Tours

Mark Cavendish has become just the fifth man to win the points jerseys in all three Grand Tours, the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider taking his fifth stage win in this year's Giro d'Italia as the race finished in Brescia, on a day when Astana's Vincenzo Nibali was confirmed as the winner of the 96th edition of the race.

Cavendish had started the day 11 points behind Nibali, winner of the previous two stages, but took the day's two intermediate sprints to move ahead of the Sicilian before taking the final sprint.

AG2R La Mondiale's Carlos Betancur succeeds fellow Colombian Rigoberto Uran of Team Sky as winner of the best young rider's competition, while with no categorised climbs today, Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox's Stefano Pirazzi is confirmed as winner of the mountains jersey. Uran finishes second on GC, with the podium completed by Cadel Evans of BMC Racing.

Huge crowds greeted the arrival in Brescia of the 168 riders remaining from the 207 who had started the race in Naples three weeks ago, with Nibali’s Astana team, their Specialized bikes adorned with pink bartape, leading the peloton into the first of seven 4.2km laps of the closing circuit.

With today marking the first time since 2007 that the Giro has concluded with a road stage rather than an individual time trial – last year, in Milan, the maglia rosa itself changed hands on the final day as Ryder Hesjedal overhauled Joaquim Rodriguez – there was a relaxed air around the peloton today as the riders headed towards Brescia on a rare sunny day.

Maglia rosa Nibali’s team provided Champagne for the 22 others taking part in the race, while Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox celebrated Pirazzi’s mountains classification win by dishing out pizza to all the teams on the race.

For one team, though, there was some unfinished business to be dealt with. Nibali’s victories in Thursday’s individual time trial and on the summit finish at the Tre Cime di Lavaredo yesterday had seen him move ahead of Cavendish in the points classification.

With Nibali in the maglia rosa, it fell to the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider to wear the red points jersey today, but as he posed for photos at the start with the other jersey wearers, Cavendish looked like a man who knew he had work to do.

At the day’s first intermediate sprint, which came at Sirmione, 129.1km into the 197km stage from Riese Pio X, Cavendish crossed unopposed to reduce the deficit to Nibali to just 3 points.

He seemed a bit too eager to get the final points that would guarantee his victory, going ahead of the peloton at the start of the third lap of the circuit in Brescia with confusion about where exactly the second intermediate sprint point was, with the stage profile showing a different location in the roadbook to the one on the stage itinerary.

In fact, it was at the start of the next but one lap, and with a move by Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela’s Giairo Ermeti brought back, Omega Pharma-Quick Step led the peloton up to that second intermediate sprint, Cavendish crossing unchallenged to move into the leadership of the points classification on the road.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step ratcheted up the pace on the closing laps of a circuit that had a number of narrow roads and tight corners, but coming under the flame rouge, it was Cannondale who moved to the front as they looked to set up Elia Viviani, second to Cavendish in two stages of this year’s race.

It was another Italian, however, Sacha Modolo of Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox, who pushed the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider closest, finishing second with Viviani in third place.

Cavendish now joins Eddy Merckx, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Laurent Jalabert and Alessandro Petacchi in winning the points classification at all three Grand Tours, and what’s more, he has done it in emphatic manner, winning all five of the sprints he contested.

On a day for the sprinters, there was no change in the overall standings, Nibali emerging as a convincing and worthy winner of a race that at times has been thrown into chaos by the weather.

The 28-year-old from Messina rider finishes the race 4 minutes 43 seconds ahead of Uran, with Evans a further 1 minute 9 seconds back.

The picture of him emerging through the snow to take a convincing win in the Dolomites yesterday and clinch the maglia rosa is likely to become a career-defining image as he sealed his second Grand Tour win, adding the 2013 Giro to the 2010 Vuelta title.

Giro d'Italia Stage 21 result  
  
1  CAVENDISH Mark      Omega Pharma - Quick-Step          05:30:09
2  MODOLO Sacha        Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox    All at same time
3  VIVIANI Elia        Cannondale Pro Cycling
4  NIZZOLO Giacomo     RadioShack - Leopard
5  MEZGEC Luka         Team Argos - Shimano
6  FERRARI Roberto     Lampre - Merida
7  DEHAES Kenny        Lotto Belisol Team
8  BELLETTI Manuel     AG2R La Mondiale
9  VISCONTI Giovanni   Movistar Team
10 PAOLINI Luca        Katusha Team
11 LANCASTER Brett     Orica GreenEDGE
12 VENTOSO Francisco   Movistar Team
13 TAMOURIDIS Ioannis  Euskaltel - Euskadi
14 HUNTER Robert       Garmin - Sharp
15 CANOLA Marco        Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox 
16 DUQUE Leonardo      Team Colombia
17 ANDRIATO Rafael     Vini Fantini
18 RUBIANO Miguel      Androni - Venezuela
19 MARCATO Marco       Vacansoleil - DCM
20 TRENTIN Matteo      Omega Pharma - Quick-Step
  
Final overall standings   
  
1  NIBALI Vincenzo     Astana Pro Team                    84:53:28
2  URAN Rigoberto      Sky Procycling                        04:43
3  EVANS Cadel         BMC Racing Team                       05:52
4  SCARPONI Michele    Lampre - Merida                       06:48
5  BETANCUR Carlos     AG2R La Mondiale                      07:28
6  NIEMIEC Przemyslaw  Lampre - Merida                       07:43
7  MAJKA Rafal         Team Saxo-Tinkoff                     08:09
8  INTXAUSTI Benat     Movistar Team                         10:26
9  SANTAMBROGIO Mauro  Vini Fantini                          10:32
10 POZZOVIVO Domenico  AG2R La Mondiale                      10:59

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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10 comments

Avatar
Mostyn | 10 years ago
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Well done Mark Cavendish.

Getting the points Jersey in the Giro is a tough one to achieve.

World class sprinting.

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kitkat | 10 years ago
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Absolutely fantastic! So pleased for Cav. Can't wait for the tour to kick off!

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CraigS | 10 years ago
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Not even a mention on the news when I caught it. If its not Wiggins the media aren't interested! This was a huge achievement, arguably bigger than the green jersey because this one isn't really a "sprinters" jersey!

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crazy-legs | 10 years ago
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The way the Giro worked the points though was different to the way the Tour does it - basically the points are the same no matter what type of stage. For a pure sprinter like Cav to get through the whole Giro and to win the points jersey was nothing short of incredible as it was biased so heavily towards GC contenders. The fact that Nibali was in red by default at the start of the final stage shows how much Cav had to do to even be in contention, never mind win it.

His finest hour, the guy is a true champion. Here's hoping the British media recognise that fact as they recognised Bradley's TdF victory.

Avatar
alronald | 10 years ago
0 likes

Time or a new Cycling Knight of the Realm

Avatar
SideBurn replied to alronald | 10 years ago
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alronald wrote:

Time or a new Cycling Knight of the Realm

Or 'Star in a reasonably priced car'?

Avatar
Tjuice replied to SideBurn | 10 years ago
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SideBurn wrote:
alronald wrote:

Time or a new Cycling Knight of the Realm

Or 'Star in a reasonably priced car'?

That would be absolutely awesome.

a) I bet he'd be extremely good on a race track and would be right at the top end of the leaderboard

b) I think it would be an absolutely cracking interview

Avatar
antonio | 10 years ago
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The finale was just breathtaking, eyeballs out stuff right to the wire, Cavendish is just incredible!

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Colin Peyresourde | 10 years ago
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Who won the prestigious team award?

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Super Domestique replied to Colin Peyresourde | 10 years ago
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Colin Peyresourde wrote:

Who won the prestigious team award?

Sky

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