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

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