Vincenzo wins the Tour – barring a disaster
VINCENZO NIBALI secured his firstTour de France title in Perigueux on Saturday as Tony Martin won the penultimate day’s time-trial.
Nibali (Astana), barring an astonishing and unprecedented turn of events, will win the 101stTour’s yellow jersey this evening after taking a lead of 7min. 52sec. to Paris, where the final stage is traditionally a procession, before being contested by the sprinters on the Champs-Elysees.
The Italian, winner of the 2010Vuelta a Espana and 2013 Giro d’Italia, will become the sixth rider to win all three GrandTours, after Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Alberto Contador.
Martin (Omega PharmaQuickStep) won the 54-kilometre time-trial from Bergerac in 1hr 6min 21 sec, and Nibali was fourth in 1hr 8min 19sec to seal his success.
The 20th stage was about who would join Nibali on the podium, with three riders – Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), JeanChristophe Peraud (Ag2r La Mondiale) and AlejandroValverde (Movistar) – separated by 15 seconds at the start of the day.
Peraud shrugged off a puncture to finish the day seventh in 1:08:48 and take second overall and will today become the first Frenchman to step on to theTour podium in 17 years, since Richard Virenque in 1997.
For the first time in 30 years – when Laurent Fignon won the 1984Tour ahead of Hinault – there will be two Frenchmen on the podium after Pinot finished 11th moving him to third overall.