Giro d'Italia Final – Contador wins easily, podium unchanged over final week

Contador celebrates his victory atop the podium.

With today's time-trial, Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard) sealed overall victory in the Giro d'Italia by finishing third. His final margin of over six minutes in one of the largest in the history of the race. Second place was Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) while third was Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale).

Stages over the final three days: Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) was gifted his first career victory on stage 19 by Contador. Tiralongo had spent the last two seasons working for Contador and was repaid in kind by his former teammate who didn't attack for the stage victory on the final climb though he easily could have.

On stage 20, Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) was in the early breakaway of the day and then attacked from the break on the second to last climb of the day. He ended up winning the stage by over four minutes over Jose Rujano (Androni-Giacatolli) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) who got away from Contador and the other contenders on the final climb to Sestriere. The win was especially emotional for Kiryienka, who dedicated the win to teammate Xavier Tondo. Tondo was killed last week in a household accident.

With the climbing done, the time-trialists took center stage for the final day (instead of the processional stage ending in a sprint that occurs at the Tour de France). Former pink jersey David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo) took the stage after Contador pulled up to celebrate his overall win in the final kilometer. Even had he not pulled up, Contador may not have been good enough to beat Millar's time though he likely would have finished second on the stage instead of third.

Final GC matters: Nibali beat Scarponi on the stage, but did not pull back enough time to move to second place on the podium. Notoriously bad time-trialists John Gadret (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Joaquim Rodriguez did enough to hold their positions while Roman Kreuziger (Astana) moved up to sixth overall, his best ever Grand Tour finish.

Kiriyienka climbs Sestriere. the climb is famous for hosting

Lance Armstrong's famous attack in the 1999 Tour de France

and Paolo Salvodelli's last ditch climb to seal the 2005 Giro.

Photo courtesy of Cycling Central

Biggest surprises (stages): Tiralongo being in the final group on his stage win qualifies as a huge surprise given he has been a domestique for his entire career and had never actually won a race of any type, let alone a Grand Tour stage. Kiryienka's margin of victory on stage 20 also was a huge surprise given the way this race had treated most breakaways (even the ones that got away lost most of their advantages once the climbs started).

Biggest surprises (entire race): Other teams were willing to work with Contador through the whole race. It seemed as though Contador was regularly left with few or no teammates and then he had teammates on the road in other colors. No doubt Contador was the best man in this race, but the helpers he had thoughout the race widened the margin over Scarponi and Nibali that much more.

Biggest disappointments (stages): Contador didn't take a stage. A dominant race winner should win a stage on the final weekend if there is either climbing or a time-trial and Contador gifted his chances away. In particular, I would like to have seen Contador race all out all the way through the time-trial. I don't know that he would have won, but it would have been more fun to watch.

Biggest disappointments (entire race): None of the pre-race favorites other than Scarponi and Nibali ever tried to attack while the race was still in doubt. Where was Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC) and his three Grand Tour wins? Where was Rodriguez with his overall top ranked rider last year award? Where was Kreuziger who talked all spring of winning the Giro? Where was everyone else? Jose Rujano tried, but was already well behind after losing five minutes on the Strade Bianchi stage during the first week and he can't time-trial. Gadret was a revelation, but he also can't time-trial. Igor Anton (Euskatel) did a good job of getting his stage win and training for his real season goal the Vuelta a Espana. Nibali tried his luck with the descents a couple of times on both the Strade Bianchi stage and the climbfest on stage 15 and Scarponi got up the road a couple of times on both the Grossglockner stage and the stage 15 things, but never enough to threaten Contador. Yes, the overall race was boring, but only because Contador's rivals didn't attack. Had they done so, the margin might have been bigger, but there would have been many more entertaining stages along the way.

Other competitions: The sprinters race (points) is more the domain of GC contenders in a climbing intensive race like this. Contador won it easily, especially after the sprinters who racked up points early went home before the Grossglockner climb (most would have been eliminated by time cut anyway on one of the stages). The King of the Mountains jersey ended up with Stefano Garzelli (Acqua a Sapone). Garzelli, a former Giro winner riding his last Giro, took the cash bonus for summiting the Cimi Coppi (highest point in the race) first during his time in the breakaway on stage 15 and while he didn't win the stage, it gave him a big lead to protect in the mountain competition that he never relinquished. In the youn rider competition (best 25 and under), Krueziger was the man on it. He held the jersey from the early stages and was only threatened at the very end by Steven Kruiswijk (Rabobank).

Other notes: Contador's hearing for doping relating to his positive test for Clenbuterol at the Tour de France was pushed back again, allowing him to start the Tour de France. Interestingly, the top 11 riders on the final GC represented 11 different teams before a second Ag2r-La Mondiale rider (Herbert Dupont) appears. Normally, a dometisque of one of the top racers finishes in the top ten of most stage races (see Nibali's third to teammate Ivan Basso last year and the 1-2 finish of Radioshack riders Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer in the recent Tour of California). Of the 207 riders to start the race, 159 reached the finish in Milan. Jos Van Emden was last overall finishing nearly five hours behind Contador.

What's next for the peloton? For many, national championships in road racing and the time-trial are happening now. That comes with the opportunity to wear your country's jersey while racing for the winners. For the rest, its either rest time until later in the season, or its preparation for the Tour de France, starting July 2. For some prep will be more training while for others, prep will be racing in Tour de Luxembourg (starting Wednesday), the Criterium du Dauphine in France (starting June 5) or the Tour de Suisse (that's Switzerland for those who don't know) starting June 11.

Cycling on aubievegas: Next up cycling wise will be the Tour de France starting July 2 with daily reports like what I wrote here. I hope you'll join me.